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Cities tightening belts by sacking Santa

By Stephanie Simon, The Wall Street Journal

Published November 10, 2008 at 10:56 a.m.
Updated November 10, 2008 at 10:56 a.m.

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Santa won’t be waving to the children of Bay City, Mich., this year — at least, not the giant illuminated Santa that used to perch on a downtown rooftop.

Mayor Charles M. Brunner made the call with a heavy heart.

During long winter nights, it always gave him a lift to see the lights all aglow.

But this year, even Santa is getting downsized. It’s too expensive for the struggling old lumber town to hoist him up to the roof and keep him twinkling.

With budgets tightening and corporate sponsors vanishing, communities from coast to coast have moved to trim the trimmings.

They’re hiring fewer elves and renting smaller floats for their Christmas parades. They’re stringing fewer lights.

Santa bookings have dropped so steeply that the Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas, which represents 700 jolly souls in red velvet, held a series of meetings to discuss their economic survival. Among the tips: If clients can’t afford an extended Santa visit at $125 an hour, offer them a quickie drop-in. “Have him read a story to the group instead of having everyone come sit on Santa’s lap,” suggests Nicholas Trolli, who says bookings are down 50 percent for the 20 Santas he represents along the East Coast.

This trend of skimping on civic cheer comes as a blow to many families. Their holidays at home will be more modest this year.

Office parties also will be subdued. Now they can’t even count on cherished holiday traditions in the town square.

Scott Swank, director of the Heritage Museums & Gardens in Sandwich, Mass., hates to dwell on the loss; it feels a bit frivolous to mourn a festival when so many people are losing homes and jobs and life savings.

Still, it hurt him to have to call off the museum’s annual Spectacle of Lights for lack of funding. Last year, 16,000 visitors came to wander a woodland path shimmering with lights and ringing with music. But the state, strapped for cash, cut arts grants this year and Swank couldn’t find sponsors willing to shoulder the $140,000 cost.

“We’re totally heartbroken,” he said. The economic crisis makes for “a sorry picture all around,” he said, “but it’s especially sad when it comes to Christmas.” Even where festivities continue, a new mood of austerity has taken hold.

In Denver, the annual Parade of Lights extravaganza may also be a bit less showy. In October, when corporate-sponsored funding was running 20 percent below expectations, organizers appealed to the public to save the parade, saying even $5 donations would help.

They made up much of the gap but remain $50,000 short. With a costume-rental deadline looming, they’re sweating every detail.

“You can clip five costumes from here and a few elves from there, but you don’t want to take away from the experience,” spokeswoman Sarah Neumann explained.

Even without a full complement of elves, she said the privately sponsored show must go on. “Some people ask, ‘Why would you even have a parade in times like these?’ We would argue that there’s no better time.”

In Bonita Springs, Fla., Councilman Pat McCourt argued that it was unseemly to spend $50,000 decorating a park. “C’mon!” he said, urging the city to show restraint “in recognition that the whole world is going through an economic crisis.” He won; the lights budget was cut in half.

Gatlinburg, Tenn., had the foresight in recent years to install energy-efficient bulbs in its holiday displays, slashing the electric bill by 95 percent. But Rocky and Bullwinkle were booted from the upcoming Fantasy of Lights parade; the big cartoon balloons cost $1,000 apiece just to fill with helium. Viewers will have to make do instead with an airborne eagle. To further cut costs, the eagle will be only partly filled with helium, meaning it should bob along just above eye-level.

Civic leaders in Bay City, Mich., a working-class town of 34,000, would also like to lift spirits this winter. They can’t.

Like so many other towns, Bay City has staggered as foreclosures rise, property values dip and sales slump in the antique shops and boutiques by Saginaw Bay. The parks department no longer offers summer programs for children. The fire department may soon be replaced by a volunteer force.

So when it came time to plan the annual City of Lights display, Mayor Brunner looked at the $75,000 price and blanched.

The monthlong tradition turned a riverfront park into a magical world of towering toy soldiers, glowing snowflakes and — a sentimental favorite — a “Fishing Santa” who cast an illuminated line for walleye. Entrepreneurs offered horse-drawn carriage rides and limousine tours of the lights, and families drove in from neighboring towns, often making a night of it with stops at restaurants and pubs.

This year, though, organizers couldn’t round up enough donors, and the city couldn’t afford to repair the displays, lift them into place and keep them glowing.

The mayor has plenty of crushed constituents. “‘Complain’ isn’t the word,” he says. “People are sad.” With the festival canceled, Bay City business owners say they may not bother decking downtown with illuminated ornaments — another holiday tradition there. It costs $1,500 to hang the decorations and no one’s in a mood to pitch in.

“People just aren’t feeling it — or can’t afford it,” said local businessman Jay Samborn, who owns three bars and a steakhouse. He saved last year’s tinsel for the restaurant, but in his bars, he plans to settle for “whatever we can get free from the beer companies.” Such glum tidings from around the nation fire up Jim Fouts, the mayor of Warren, Mich., just outside Detroit.

Many Warren residents are employed in the beleaguered auto industry, so the town has been reeling. “We can ill afford the appearance of business as usual — and that goes for Christmas, as well,” the mayor said.

Last year, his first Christmas in office, Fouts says he cut $36,000 from the annual tree-lighting festival by rallying locals to pitch in. Instead of hiring a Santa, he found a volunteer.

Instead of bringing in a professional band, he invited the high school choir. He kept the rented reindeer — for the children — but scrapped the fireworks show.

This year, he’s determined to pare the budget even more, perhaps by eliminating the $750 spent on ice sculptures or by finding a sponsor to put up $2,300 for the horse-drawn carriage rides offered free to the public.

But he insists that with the right attitude, the festivities will be more festive than ever. “It’ll be the true spirit of Christmas,” Fouts says. “It’s about people giving, without taxpayers having to.”

Comments

  • November 10, 2008

    12:44 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Proudmale writes:

    I believe if you really look at it, most Santas are pure volunteers. I have been playing the role for over 30 years, and have never made even so much as a dime for my time and effort. However, I have invested well over a thousand dollars into my costume over the years.

    The pay from this job comes from the kids melting into you as they give you a loving hug and excitedly tell you what you want for Christmas.

    Those times can never be forgotten, and truly make up for the jerks who sit on your lap and make rude comments, try to pull off your hat, or heckle you as you walk through the crowd of kids.

    I know that Santa can do immense amounts of good. Through him I have stopped a child sexual abuse case, helped many many families where the Dad was out of work and they were too proud to let anybody know about the situation (kind of hard to network that way), and stopped hundreds of cases of child bullying at the schools. A kid may be afraid of letting his teacher know that somebody is shaking him down, but they feel safe in asking Santa to help them out with it.

    Finally, in addition to the immense joy we Santas get from our work, an unavoidable downside occurs from having several hundred kids on your lap. Several of them are sick, often with different bugs, and they share them with Santa. Doctors call the results Santa Claus Throat and need to treat it with agressive medications.

    One year, I was on antibiotics until late March. But, there are dozens of my brothers in red who are not so lucky every year. In January or February, some old geezer breathes his last, and the world will little notice that they have lost a precious resource in making the lives of children (no matter what their age) a little brighter each year.

  • November 10, 2008

    2:33 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Dick_Tater writes:

    Bass Pro has the exact opposite idea. They are giving away pictures with Santa. Some smart person figured out that for such little expenditure, they get great publicity and draw in customers. The negative publicity Bay City is going to get from this will surely outweigh any benefit.

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