Are you feeling a little slack? Feeling down? The end of the year not very happy? A piece of advice: go hang out near Place Darcy, the Cité de la gastronomie in Dijon, or even the city center of Châtillon-sur-Seine. With a little luck, you will come across one of the Santa Clauses coached by the Even Not Fear association, Bad Boy Production, led by the overactive Yannick Fanet, notably speaker of the Dijon International and Gastronomic Fair.
Army and External Operations
Under the red coat, there is for example Manu or Greg, Greg or Manu, we deliberately tend to mix the two, since they share at least three points in common: the beard for real in life, baldness all completely assumed, but also a life journey which was not really intended to make kids smile around December 25th. Manu actually joined the Army in 1988. He was part of this generation of External Operations (Opex) which experienced multiple war zones between the Gulf War in 1990, and Mali in 2020.
Greg started in the prison administration as a supervisor, before joining the Regional Intervention and Security Teams (Eris), created in 2003 to strengthen the security of prison establishments.
“Sometimes, our hairs also stand on end”
Their common point is the meeting with Yannick Fanet, and the values that go with it: solidarity, generosity, an art of “messing around”, while being very attached to the ideas of respect, education and commitment. So when the boss of Bad Boy Production asked them to wear Santa's red suit, they didn't hesitate for long. “It’s an opportunity to please babies and grandmothers over 90 years old,” rejoices Manu. Not to mention the teasing adults: “When you find yourself with something weighing 130 kg on your knees, it still feels weird! I also remember a kid who was very happy to tell me: “Today, I'm going on a merry-go-round with MY money!” “. “Sometimes our hairs stand on end,” adds Greg, “like when a kid told me he didn't like recess… because the other kids hit him.”
A sausage, pancakes, a unicorn and a remote-controlled lizard
Laughter often ends up winning out. Manu also had on his knees one day “a kid who wanted to ask Santa for a sausage and pancakes. For another, it was a remote-controlled unicorn and lizard.” But before talking about gifts, the two Santas never forget to ask the children if they did well at school, and if they were good at home. “We often get a thumbs up from parents,” they smile…
Greg and Manu finally share a form of “professionalism”: “We sometimes come to scout out the places and then we have clothing so that the kids really believe in it, for example a small “mattress” that we slide over the stomach to make to believe that we are fat.” The game is worth it: “Ultimately, if we do all this, it’s for one thing: the kids’ smiles.”
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