{"id":113742,"date":"2020-11-17T00:16:55","date_gmt":"2020-11-16T21:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/santa-struggles-to-spread-cheer-not-covid-19-in-2020\/"},"modified":"2020-11-17T00:16:55","modified_gmt":"2020-11-16T21:16:55","slug":"santa-struggles-to-spread-cheer-not-covid-19-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/santa-struggles-to-spread-cheer-not-covid-19-in-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"#Santa struggles to spread cheer — not COVID-19 — in 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Santa struggles to spread cheer — not COVID-19 — in 2020<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s beginning to look a lot like Christmas \u2026 is as weird as everything else in 2020.<\/p>\n

Starting Sunday at Hudson Yards, children can \u201cvisit\u201d Santa \u2014 even though the jolly old elf won\u2019t be there himself. Instead, parents can download<\/a> an augmented-reality phone app that makes it seem like elves are frolicking around the kids, who can also step into a sanitized phone booth for a video call with a pre-recorded St. Nick asking what they want for Christmas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want them to feel just as special as they would if I were actually there,\u201d said Roark Littlefield, 53, who strapped on his padding and red suit to film the video at a Manhattan studio.<\/p>\n

Normally at this time of year, the celebrity Santa would be getting ready to jolly it up at Mariah Carey\u2019s holiday concerts and making private home visits on Christmas Eve.\u00a0But with COVID-19 rates rising in New York City and around the nation, professional Clauses are forced to figure out new ways to ho-ho-ho.<\/p>\n

\"Kashden
Kashden Dunlap, of Enola, visits with Santa Claus, with safety protocols in place, at Capital City Mall in Lower Allen Township, Pa.<\/span>AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some are taking to Zoom, including 72-year-old Tim Connaghan, a Long Islander who\u2019s been playing Kris Kringle at private parties and places like the Marines\u2019 Toys for Tots events for half a century. Last year, he had 32 in-person gigs; for 2020, he\u2019ll still make a few social<\/a>ly-distanced appearances, but most will be remote.<\/p>\n

For one virtual corporate party, he\u2019s working with an event producer to deck out a 15-by-20-foot warehouse space with a scarlet throne, Christmas trees, wrapped gifts and large nutcrackers. Connaghan will read a story to employees\u2019 kids, who can also ask him questions via Zoom\u2019s chat function.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the best possible alternative to a live visit with Santa, which cannot be set up in \u2026 every instance,\u201d he said. \u201cThe kids are very smart. They understand what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Connaghan, who also heads up the nationwide booking agency RealSantas.com, put out a survey to his St. Nick brethren, asking about their 2020 plans. Out of 361 respondents, 13.6 percent said they\u2019re taking the year off, 18.5 percent will host video visits and nearly 48 percent will appear masked and in-person. More than half of those will work at a mall or other photo-friendly location \u2014 like the Bass Pro Shop in Bridgeport, Conn. \u2014 and sit behind a barrier.<\/p>\n

\"Julianna,
Julianna, 3, and Dylan, 5, Lasczak visit with Santa through a transparent barrier at a Bass Pro Shop in Bridgeport, Conn.<\/span>AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That\u2019s the plan for Kris R. Johnson, 76, who\u2019s been a Santa for 28 years. The Floridian \u2014 who has just six events planned this year, down from 36 in 2019 \u2014 is the star of a breakfast event at a Neiman Marcus in Miami, where he and guests will pose for photos separated by a Plexiglas wall.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be 100 percent different than it would be,\u201d Johnson said, noting that he would usually table hop and hold children in his arms. \u201cBut I still think the kids will get excited as soon as they see me. You can\u2019t take that away from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

And with the hope of a vaccine promising to be the best holiday gift of all, the merry-dimpled men insist they are not the ghosts of Christmas past.<\/p>\n

\u201cSanta\u2019s been around doing this for 17 centuries,\u201d said Connaghan. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to stop.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Santa struggles to spread cheer — not COVID-19 — in 2020” It\u2019s beginning to look a lot like Christmas \u2026 is as weird as everything else in 2020. Starting Sunday at Hudson Yards, children can \u201cvisit\u201d Santa \u2014 even though the jolly old elf won\u2019t be there himself. Instead, parents can download an augmented-reality phone…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":113743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/11\/covid-santa-72.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[80159,66,1545,77173,11569],"class_list":["post-113742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-11-16-20","tag-christmas","tag-coronavirus","tag-santa-claus","tag-social-distancing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}