This may come as a shock, even to aspiring Scrooges.
But Santa is not from the North Pole. He's from Flatonia, Texas (pop. 1,300), and he uses such words as malarkey and wallop.
It's kind of a long story. You see, the Santa in question, the one sitting at the Plaza at King of Prussia, is technically not even intended to be Kriss Kringle himself, since the real Jolly Man is way too busy, at this point, to sit in malls 12 hours a day.
He's just a Santa Helper named Bob Graham, 63, who, like many other men around the country, realized that his real beard and belly were worth a lot of money to malls and photo companies at Christmastime.
Their striking resemblance to Mr. Claus brings Graham and others $8,000 to $10,000 to fill Santa's boots from November to Christmas.
``I just figured it was a good way for a retired guy to make money,'' Graham said, eyes twinkling appropriately. ``My son got into it a while back, and he said I should try it out. So now he's working at Tyson's Corner mall outside Washington, D.C., and I'm up here in King of Prussia.''
Because Santa must be all white-haired, Graham said, he and his son trade tips on hair bleaching.
They both travel a long way for the holiday job. His son leaves his home in Tennessee and Graham himself drives the three-day stretch from southern Texas to Norristown to stay in a furnished apartment provided by the mall. His wife comes with him, but, other than that, it's strictly business.
``The naturally bearded Santas draw more people,'' said Len Dachino of Lorel Marketing Group, the company that places the almost-real Santas at the Court and the Plaza at King of Prussia. ``Mothers can tell. It's a word-of-mouth thing, where Mom No. 1 tells Mom No. 2 to go to this mall because they have great-looking Santas and you'll get really good photos. It's important to the mall to have them.''
And since there is less tolerance now for slapping on a synthetic white beard and stuffing a pillow under a big, black belt, it has become a little harder to find the right man for the job.
Big photo companies like Cherry Hill Photo, in New Jersey, which places more than 1,000 Santas at 350 malls nationwide, do everything they can to keep their relationships with their real-bearded Santas. Only 180 of the Santas the company placed last year had natural beards.
