“There is less kindness in society, even with Santa Claus”: as the holidays approach, actors are fed up

No one wants to play Santa Claus anymore. This is the observation made with France Blue by Willy Dublet, manager of a show production company near Nantes. “We have difficulty renewing the previous generation,” he explains. “I had four Santas before Covid. I only have one left.” And this vocations crisis does not only concern Loire-Atlantique. Two weeks before the holidays, Christmas markets and shopping centers across France are lacking actors or volunteers to play the famous character with the white beard.

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The cause is the precariousness of the profession, which discourages younger generations, but also contact with the public which has become more complex, according to Willy Dublet: “There is less goodwill in society, even with Santa Clauses”, declares he. “Parents’ approach has changed. A Santa now has to be careful about what he says.” Wearing a costume certainly does not exempt you from monitoring your words and actions. Last June, a fifty-year-old actor was convicted by the Mulhouse court for having committed sexual assault in the course of his duties: while he was dressed as Santa Claus, the man had touched several women, who were posing with him in photography, reports West France.