Who are you?
Santa Claus, Saint Nick, Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, the big fat guy that breaks into houses – I have many names and all of them tend to be true. I’m a long time giver committed to spreading joy to good children through the mass creation and distribution of presents to the children of the world (at least the one’s from rich countries).
What do you do for fun?
I’m a giver. I like to give presents to nice kids and a big lump of coal to all the little pricks out there. I also like being a business manager extraordinaire. Santa a CEO? Think about it – I operate the biggest manufacturing enterprise in the world with a global distribution system that puts companies like McDonald’s to shame. Service while you sleep. And unlike many companies, I’ve never accepted a dime of government money (put that in your pipe and smoke it GM). I’m particularly fond of supervising my elves. They’re little and awkward and quite frankly, in many ways, kind of similar to indentured servants. Not much like their distant ancestors – the elves of Middle Earth who helped Frodo take the Ring to Mt. Doom.
Yup – I have fun doing just about everything in this job – I just wish I got paid a bit better. Being paid in milk and cookies wouldn’t fly on Wall Street, so why should I have to do it ? Next year, my plan is to hire some consultants from McKinsey or Deloitte to tell me how I can streamline the whole toy making operations. After all, it’s all about cutting the fat – that’s what Mrs. Claus always says anyway. Then we can come up with a solid strategy on how I can finally extract the kind of coin I should be entitled to. 
Whoever said happiness and “joy” should be free? Consultants never fail at this sort of thing, so look for me in next year’s Forbes’ Top 100 richest men. Should be right below Bill Gates…
What is your favourite community and why?
I gotta say my favorite community is the network of children I bring gifts to every year. Even though they only pay me in milk and cookies, deep down, I know they’d pay me in Benjamins if they could. Plus they all have different ways of celebrating me. Some are sort of ridiculous.
What is your superpower?
I can see when children are sleeping and when they’ve been naughty or nice. In other words, I’m a lot like an omnipresent God. I fly around on a magic sleigh and deliver presents to millions of girls and boys every year. Beat that Superman.
How do you use this power to build community?
See above. I’m too busy putting down a possible elf strike to go into more details.
My Three Favourite Things About Santa Are…
[Editor’s Note: Normally we do our top favourite things about someone profiled in Get To Know Your Community. However, Santa Claus is kinda a big deal. So we decided to throw the rules out the window and just list all our favorite things about jolly old Saint Nick]
1. He’s a giver, not a taker. Santa has been delighting countless children for centuries. He’s part of many cultures and a constant source of excitement for everyone!
2. He’s so awesome that NORAD tracks him. That’s right – Santa is so special that NORAD decides to track him every year. He’s also a social media icon (check some stats on how often he’s searched) – he’s even on Twitter –http://twitter.com/SANTA although the profile photo doesn’t really capture his true beauty
3. He always takes one for the team. Climbing down chimneys isn’t easy. Neither is living in the Arctic – especially with Global Warming melting away the foundation of his workshop. But Santa does it all because he loves what he does and knows how much we need him!
4. He only has the pressure of deliverables on 1/ 365 days a year
5. He gets to travel extensively to far flung corners of the world and has celebrity status sans paparazzi chasing him.
6. Even though he’s well known to be grossly overweight, he’s never been an official Jenny Craig spokesperson unlike the irritating Kirstie Alley and Jason Alexander, which makes me respect him even more. If he was skinny, kids would weep.
7. He’s basically the world’s biggest philanthropist and yet never makes an official “list” (though he may be making our List)
8. Many of his elves were former oompa loompas hired from Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory after it went into receivership during the US economy meltdown
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Masthead photo courtesy of [puamelia]