Today, the holiday haul for a veteran Santa can be upward of $30,000 for a few weeks of work, making it a prime second career choice for retirees and local resident Roy Kunkle is one of them. A machinist by trade, he got a taste of performing when he landed a three-line bit part in a community play in Fernandina Beach. Although he was a newbie, he auditioned for a principal role in \u201cMiracle on 34th Street\u201d and got it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI played Kris Kringle and it snowballed from there,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, Kunkle suits up for Santa events and venues throughout Northeast Florida including the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens\u2019 ZOOLights, the Florida Yacht Club, Jacksonville Jaguars, Jacksonville Icemen games and charitable happenings like Katelyn\u2019s Ride for Autism, a golf-cart poker run to raise awareness and funds for those with Autism and related disabilities. Most kids are delighted, a few terrified and some not quite sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOne little boy at the Jacksonville Zoo was so excited he kept waving and yelling for me while in line,\u201d Kundle said. \u201cFinally, I said, \u2018It\u2019s your turn!\u2019 He comes running, gets just outside of arms reach, then screams bloody murder and runs away. That was the quickest turnaround I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thankfully, Kunkle has since developed a bit of his own holiday magic, including using a few drops of peppermint essential oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe once had a little girl who stood at the edge and just kept loudly declaring that Santa wasn\u2019t real,\u201d Kunkle recalled. \u201cHer little brother gave me a hug and said, \u2018You smell like candy canes!\u2019 She said, \u2018I gotta check this out,\u2019 climbed the fence, gave me a sniff and said, \u2018You ARE the real Santa!\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Being Santa can be a fun and fulfilling gig, bringing joy to others during the holiday season. It offers a chance to embrace the festive spirit and create memorable experiences for both children and adults. Today, the holiday haul for a veteran Santa can be upward of $30,000 for a few weeks of work, making […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1085,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lifestyle"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phlexon-dev.com\/senior\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phlexon-dev.com\/senior\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phlexon-dev.com\/senior\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phlexon-dev.com\/senior\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phlexon-dev.com\/senior\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/phlexon-dev.com\/senior\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1183,"href":"https:\/\/phlexon-dev.com\/senior\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions\/1183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phlexon-dev.com\/senior\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phlexon-dev.com\/senior\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phlexon-dev.com\/senior\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phlexon-dev.com\/senior\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}