Word: sidewalkers
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...What looks like a sidewalk Santa, sounds like a sidewalk Santa, panhandles like a sidewalk Santa, but isn't, according to some, a legitimate sidewalk Santa? Why, a Hare Krishna Santa, of course. This year, Hare Krishna Santa, have stepped up their campaign, perhaps bolstered by the demise of Volunteers of America Santas in Boston. But they are not always well-received by people on the street who think the Krishna Clauses misrepresent themselves and take money away from more established charities like the Salvation Army. Last Saturday, the Krishna Claus working Park Square seemed to be doing fairly well...
...miracle of 34th Street this year is cloning. Macy's has four Santas going at once. Western Temporaries, an employment agency in Framingham, boasts a crops of twelve. The Volunteers of America, who have discontinued their sidewalk Santa line in Boston, maintain as many as fifty of the bell-ringing clones in New York; this past weekend, I counted eight...
...Sidewalk Santas solicit contributions for their sponsors. Department store Santas not only draw shoppers into the stores--a sort of human loss leader--but also will be photographed with little Johnny or Jenny, for a fee. Lord and Taylor in Boston offers breakfast with Santa for two dollars; Filene's Santa will great you over dinner in the Filene's Greenery...
Santas come from different backgrounds. Many of the Volunteers of America sidewalk Santas are ex-alcoholics in the Volunteers rehabilitation program, and the Kris Kringling is part of their therapy. Several sidewalk Santas are city workers who see an enjoyable way to pick up an extra ten or fifteen dollars for their own Christmases. Many retirees don the red suit and beard; as one, an ex-Ringling Brothers property man, said, "Sometimes you don't know what to do with yourself, that's why I'm doing this...
However rewarding, the work's not easy. "It's a long day," said a seventeen-year veteran. "It's a hard day." Sidewalk Santas have to stand for ten or twelve hours a day. Store Santas have their own problems. As Debbie Bennett of Western Temporaries put it, "The work is hard.... Children are apt to pull his beard or heckle him.... They might take a fit or wet on Santa." Many suffer and sweat inside the heavy suit and padding--the B. Altman's Santa lamented going through "numerous T-shirts" and stinking all the way home to Long...