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Holiday Hero For Hire: This Santa's duties extend year-round 12/24/99  By Jason Trahan / Arlington Morning News Dale Kilpatrick, who stands a majestic 6-feet-6-inches, weighs 350 pounds and has long, curly, white hair and a beard, looks like a storybook Santa Claus.  It's a good thing he loves children.                                              J. Mark Kegans / Arlington Morning News Dale Kilpatrick dons his Santa uniform at his Arlington home Thursday morning. When the Arlington man isn't driving a school bus, he often suits up as Santa and listens to the myriad Christmas wishes of area children, sometimes up to 1,000 kids a night. For the last 20 years, Mr. Kilpatrick has been Santa Claus for countless youngsters and adults  alike, donning a red velvet costume for private parties, corporate clients and marketers year-round. Mr. Kilpatrick, 46, started his Santa shtick as a bus driver for the Arlington school district. "I've always loved working with children. I thought it would be a hoot to dress up as Santa Claus for the kids," Mr. Kilpatrick said. "I went to the drugstore to get some white hairspray, and I sprayed my red beard and hair. My mother made me a cheesy costume." He operates Santa For Hire from his Arlington home - and he's come a long way from using haphazard costumes. He owns five Santa outfits, ranging in price from $350 to $1,200 apiece. His black boots, studded with gold coins, are a combination of buffalo and whitetail deer leather - no reindeer, he insists. He's booked year-round, including summer gigs at Market Hall in Dallas, where retailers gather to size up Christmas merchandise. Obviously, the holiday season is his busiest time. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Mr. Kilpatrick handles up to 35 gigs, mostly private and corporate parties in North Dallas and the Park Cities. More than three-fourths of his affluent clientele are repeat customers. He's worked for Neiman-Marcus, has been on the cover of J.C. Penney's catalog and arrived via helicopter for the Dec. 4 lighting of the city of Arlington's Christmas tree. His base rate is $150 an hour for a regular booking. It doubles for next-day service and is higher for print ads and videos. Mark Rachel, Mr. Kilpatrick's agent, said his client has his own brand of magic as Santa. "It is amazing how he can handle kids, and even though they are shuffling children across his lap, he will still make each child feel independently welcome," he said. Mr. Kilpatrick said he literally grew into his role as Santa."I have always, as a young adult and child, really loved Halloween, and the Fourth of July," he said. "Christmas was just something there. I liked getting gifts, but I wasn't an overly religious child."I just grew up looking like Santa Claus. I didn't look like Bela Lugosi." Being Santa can be tough. Mr. Kilpatrick has worked corporate parties and had more than 1,000 kids on his lap during four hours. And some children aren't necessarily glad to see him. "I like to do Santa where Santa has got time to spend with children on an individual basis. My real forte is to get the 2-year-old child to come up to Santa, through distraction or subterfuge, whatever it takes. I've had to take most of my costume off so they can see it's a real guy under the red velvet and white fur. At that age, they can be very afraid of Santa." "I have a bad memory for horror stories," Mr. Kilpatrick said. "I did have a child urinate on me by mistake. That was back in the early Santa days, and I didn't have but one costume then." There have been many heart-tugging moments, too."When a child asks, 'I just want Dad to move back home,' or, 'My dog died,' I say, 'I can't do that.' I feel for them and love them but I'm not magic," Mr. Kilpatrick said."I tell them, 'Santa is not magic - he is here to bring gifts. What you need is to understand that happiness comes from the heart, and only you can choose to be happy. Santa, parents, grandparents, teachers - no one can make you truly happy except you.' I stress that a lot. That's one of the things I've learned being a Sunday school teacher" at Unity Church of Arlington, 3525 S. Bowen Road. Mr. Kilpatrick grew up in Arlington and graduated from Arlington High School. He attended Tarrant County College. He lives with his 11-year-old son, Eugene, in Central Arlington. His son, he said, "even has a little Santa Claus costume that he's worn in a couple of school pageants.""I've always told him that Santa is an idea, a desire to give in an incognito kind of way," he said. "I tell children who are 11- or 12-years-old, 'You could be Santa Claus also. It doesn't take a big belly or a beard, you just have to have the desire to give a gift without the other person knowing it's from you."                                      Staff writer Jason Trahan can be reached at [email protected].

 
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