Have you been desperate to have your child photographed with Santa this year? Well CNN reported that Santa is fully booked through the Omicron season. The number of trained and available Santas has gone down, which is another disruption in the supply chain caused by the pandemic.
There are 10% fewer Santas available this year while requests for Santas have more than doubled when compared to pre-pandemic levels.
The problem is that Santa schools are seeing less enrollment. Santa trainees don’t want to travel to the indoor school settings or sit in crowded Santa conferences. Just like health care workers around the country, experienced long time Santas are retiring their red coats. 18% are taking 2021 off.
Being over weight and over 60 years old, Santa is at a high risk category when it comes to getting COVID-19. More than 335 Santa’s have died this year from coronavirus and other ailments, according to Mitch Allen of Hire Santa. Santas these days must show proof of vaccination, and he must take coronavirus rapid test twice a week. Some Santas are fearful of the potentially infested children. With the Omicron variant more children are being infected and requiring hospitalization.
The obvious solution is to have Krampus sit in. He might bite, scratch and breath COVID on your scamp but think of the photo opportunity. Krampus doesn’t give a crap about his own health or anyone else’s health. If your child has not been good, Krampus had the solution.