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Brenda Goodman is a senior news writer for WebMD. Andy Miller is editor and CEO of Georgia Health News.
Jan. 13, 2021 It felt like Christmas when “Santa Rick” Rosenthal, who runs Northern Lights Santa Academy in Atlanta, snagged a rare slot to receive one of the first COVID-19 vaccines doled out to seniors in Georgia.
Rosenthal, who trains people to play Santa, didn’t even mind that his appointment was at 5:20 in the morning.
The 68-year-old finished treatment for stage IV cancer that had settled in his legs last September. His 91-year-old father-in-law died of COVID just a week ago.
It felt like Christmas when “Santa Rick” Rosenthal, who runs Northern Lights Santa Academy in Atlanta, snagged a rare slot to receive one of the first COVID-19 vaccines doled out
It was almost the year without a Santa Claus
ABOVE: Santa Rick Banks with his wife, Annie, as Mrs. Claus, during a Zoom call. BELOW: Santa Dan Greenleaf touches the plexiglass at Cabela’s Bass Pro Shop in Hooksett. Sean Hurley photos / NH Public Radio
Santa Dan Greenleaf touches the plexiglass at Cabela s Bass Pro Shop in Hooksett. Sean Hurley / NH Public Radio
Published: 12/23/2020 6:38:23 PM
At the summer meeting of the New England Santa Claus Society there was talk that this might be a year without Santa Claus. At least at the malls and stores.
And while many Santas opted to go virtual and the Kris Kringle business is way down, you can still find a Santa here or there, socially distanced, wearing a mask, likely behind a plexiglass wall.
Before Santa Claus, there was Abraham Claus.
Abraham Claus the forefather of all the Clauses wore a $10 Santa coat with a round patch with Hebrew letters on his right sleeve bicep and a blue Star of David sewn on the back. He had snap-on
peyos to complete the picture. This Semitic getup was the work of an Atlanta teen named Rick Rosenthal.
In the 1960s, he’d stop by the homes of his cheerleader friends and garland their trees with miniature bagels. It started as a joke and, decades later, became a calling.
Rosenthal, 68, now calls himself Santa Rick year-round. He’s also been a full-time Modern Orthodox Jew for over 30 years.
Listen to the radio version of the story here.
Santa Rick Banks, a proud member of the National Brotherhood of Real Bearded Santas, sits before a laptop in the basement of his house in Chichester and adjusts the camera to make sure the Christmas tree behind him can be seen. “This year we have gone virtual,” Santa Rick says, “we ve done some real live gigs as we call them. But they ve been socially distanced.”
Santa Rick Banks with his wife Annie as Mrs. Claus during a Zoom call.
Credit Sean Hurley
One unexpected problem with those live gigs, he says – there’s a certain kind of kid who – if you happen to be Santa Claus - will make a run at you. “I m pretty good with the moves,” he says, “I mean, sometimes you get one that runs right at you and you got to you know, be like a bullfighter.”