Being
C L A A T U N S A S Mid-Southerners get into character to spread Christmas cheer.
Y
by jon w. sparks
es, Virginia, there is a Santa industry. It’s a lively seasonal business for professional Santas in the Mid-South, and a few dozen souls find that the combination of making youngsters smile and making some spending money is a pretty agreeable pursuit. Stephen Arnold (fabledsanta.com) has been a professional Santa since 2012 and is as knowledgeable as anyone
about the business. Arnold ran the Only Kids specialty toy shop for 22 years, a store familiar to many Memphians for its location at the Regalia Center. So it wasn’t a huge stretch for him to morph into the jolly elf. There were times during
the season when the Santa he hired wouldn’t show up, so the hefty Arnold would don a suit and entertain the youngsters. But it wasn’t a regular thing because, after all, he had a toy store to run at the busiest time of year.
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