So real, in fact, that in 1995, he legally changed his name to Santa A. Claus, the middle initial to honor his hometown of Allentown. (Don't even try to get him to tell you his birth name. Disclosing it will kill the magic, he says.)
Every year for the last 19 Christmases, Landau's three children, along with thousands of other Delaware County kids, had shared their Christmas wishes with Santa and his wife, Mrs. Claus, at Concord Mall in Wilmington.
But this year, when Landau, who lives in Wallingford, went to the mall's website to find out when Santa would be arriving, she found it odd that there was no mention of it.
She checked it once. Checked it twice. Nothing.
Then there was the post on Santa's site (www.santa-a-claus.com) that turned her confusion into dread: Santa was gone.
Seems that Concord Mall, in a cost-saving measure, decided not to renew Santa's contract. What was worse, Santa and Mrs. Claus would be spreading glad tidings far, far away, at the Jersey Gardens Mall in Elizabeth, N.J., 110 miles north.
For Landau, that might as well be the North Pole.
"Why, Santa, why?" Landau whines, tongue only halfway planted in cheek. "You're a tradition for most families in this area. What am I supposed to tell my children? You're the only Santa they know!"
Ho, ho, say what?
Hey, the move surprised Claus, too.
After all, he was the real deal.
"They dropped us," says Claus. "We only had four days to contact someone else, or we'd be out in the cold."
With no time to waste, he went job-hunting. Sound familiar? First time in all these years.
And he had plenty of credentials to trumpet.
The former truck driver packs 260 unpadded pounds on his 5-foot-4 frame. His dyed-white beard is his own. He actually owns 11 reindeer, which he boards in Hershey, Lancaster, and Elk Mountain.
