Santa’s Helpers

Wizards' Jack Sanderson Makes a Documentary About the Polar Obsessed

It was at a commercial audition of all places that Jack Sanderson got the Santa bug. Sanderson, an actor who also works as the assistant to the executive producer of the Disney series Wizards of Waverly Place (shot at Hollywood Center Studios), was trying to land a role as the jolly old elf and discovered that many of his competitors arrived with their hair and beards bleached white and their very own red suits and caps. He sensed that he had stumbled upon a quirky subculture and quickly hatched the idea to make a documentary about the surprisingly large fraternity of husky men whose lives center on elves, reindeer and ho ho hos.

Since then, Sanderson has been traveling the country with a camera crew and imbibing the Santa experience from all angles. He's attended two Santa schools, chatted with members of the Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas, and rode on the back of a fire truck in a Massachusetts Christmas parade. He's about to embark on another East Coast trip where he plans to spend a few hours on a Manhattan street corner ringing a bell and participate in a New Jersey Polar Express tour.

"I'll also be taking part in Operation Santa Claus at the James A. Farley Post Office in New York," Sanderson says. "It gives members of the public a chance to respond to letters from kids who may not be getting anything."

Santa, it turns out, is big business. There are five Santa Schools in the U.S. alone. And the job involves a lot more than promising kids dolls and trains. "I was a little surprised to learn, although I shouldn't have been, that Santas need their own liability insurance," Sanderson notes.

Sanderson hopes to be done shooting his film early in the New Year with the aim of having it ready for the festival circuit some months after that. "We're aiming for a theatrical release in 2011," adds Sanderson.

Here's hoping the real Saint Nick can make that wish come true.