I’ve often wondered how much pleasure individuals who play Santa had throughout the holiday season.
It can’t be an easy job – the stress of living up to the expectations of every youngster you see would break me – yet there must be a great sense of accomplishment at the end of each day.
After all, a good Santa has the ability to put a smile on the faces of all children, regardless of their attitude, and simply knowing they’re establishing a sense of enchantment in a world that urgently needs it must be like a soothing salve for the soul.
Few Santas, however, have ever experienced such a harrowing, fatal circumstance as Eric Schmitt-Matzen, mechanical engineer and co-owner of Packaging Seals & Engineering, who plays Father Christmas for events and performances every year.
According to sources, Eric had just returned home from work one day in 2016 when he received an urgent call from a Tennessee hospital.
Eric told the reporters that the other end of the telephone was a nurse who had phoned him because there was a terminally ill five-year-old kid in the hospital whose ultimate wish was to meet Santa.
According to Eric’s version, he then entered the ICU, sat at the end of the boy’s bed, and said, “What’s this, I hear you’re going to be missing Christmas this year?”
“They say I’m going to die,” the child said after opening his present. “How will I know when I arrive at my destination?”
Eric allegedly then requested the youngster to perform him a favor.
“When you get up to them Pearly Gates, you just tell them you’re Santa’s Number One elf, and I know they’ll let you in,” he went on to say.
The small child sat up in his bed and hugged Eric tightly. Eric subsequently informed reporters that the five-year-old died in his arms.
“He was in my arms when I felt him pass,” said the man.
