SPOILER ALERT: Do not let grandchildren read this story!
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ontrary to popular belief, Santa Claus does not live at the North Pole, nor is he an imaginary figure. The Jolly Old Elf is alive and well and living near the waterfront in Vancouver! Roger Dahlquist is Santa Claus, at least for several weeks each year, and for nearly a decade has donned the red suit, grown his white beard out and helped spread the joy of Christmas. “When you put that costume on you are a different person,” he says. “It’s like magic.” Roger’s transformation into Santa started with a desire to visit Japan. “After retirement, I had a Japanese friend in the lumber business over in Hokkaido. I had been there a number of times,” he says. “When I retired, he came over here, and as I walked out the door at Telus, we went into a conference at the Bayshore Hotel, and I got into the lumber business, organizing, buying and custom cutting logs here to export to Japan. I did this for three years until their economy went downhill. “I always wanted to go back there because it is a beautiful place and people are very nice. It is also a very expensive place to go to as I knew from past trips.” In Japan, a friend told Roger, there were plenty of job opportunities portraying Santa; if Roger grew out his beard, he would be well suited for the jolly role. Roger didn’t know where to begin. He wandered over to the children’s market on Granville Island and started making inquiries, where they told him they had already had a Santa Claus. The person they put him in contact with informed Roger that he needed to gain experience as Santa before going overseas. His first job was in the Brentwood Mall in Burnaby. “On opening day, I had to go out on stage with a woman entertainer, doing ‘Ho Ho Ho’, nervous as hell,” says
Roger. “Over time, it improved. I was there for the whole Christmas season that year.” In a way, it’s ironic that Roger wound up as Santa Claus because he grew up without a great appreciation for Christmas. “I stayed on because I enjoyed it,” he says. “As a child, I grew up under poor circumstances and Christmas was not a happy time for me. Up until recently that has carried over and Christ-
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mas would come along and I would get sort of depressed. Through being Santa, it opens up a whole new opportunity to understand and enjoy the whole Christmas idea: the children, the parents, the buying of gifts, and the anticipation of waiting for Christmas day until they can open their gifts.” Roger, at a year old, and his older sister moved to Burnaby with their single mother in 1939 after their parents split up and their father went
BRING THEM BACK.
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DECEMBER 2009AM 5 9/17/09 10:11:27