So, I will apologize to you, my fine Clausnet friends, right off the bat...this might not be the best reading as I'm just going to throw my thoughts into this blog as they come and I might ramble. If you are able to make sense of it all...well, BRAVI!

Now, I am always grateful for the opportunity to speak with fellow Santas, it's really a fun experience. However, one such conversation this week had me rather at a loss for words. This individual will more than likely read this blog post, and I can only hope it will act as a sort of wake-up call or perhaps we can name this an Inter-Santa-vention. Ho, Ho, Ho!

While speaking to this Santa on this past season, lessons learned, and a few things I'm working on to improve my "Santa" for this coming season, he commented on his own journey and where he is at this moment. As best I can from memory, these were a few of his words, "I've pretty much seen it all, learned it all, and am confident in my portrayal...this old dog doesn't have any more tricks to learn." The phone conversation ended shortly after this statement and I was left speechless...almost. What just happened!? Did I actually speak to THE worlds one and only PERFECT Santa!? ...no.

I'm a true believer that we can all bring something to the table, whether this is your 1st season or your 30th season, I believe everyone has something we can appreciate and learn from. We are all at different points on the map of our "Santa journey." While I agree that there MUST be a great amount of confidence within ourselves to portray Santa correctly, we CANNOT find ourselves at a point to say there is nothing more to learn.

We can all put the "teacher" hat on at times, but every great teacher I have ever met, was just as quick to put the "student" hat on too. I would think that if you find yourself in a place where you don't want to learn any more, or think you can't, then perhaps it's just not that important to you.

I think we have all seen those individuals, even on Clausnet, some are here for the social fun, some are here to learn and study, some are here just for just the networking, and some unfortunately are here just for the marketing with little participation...we are the "Santa demographic" in their sales projections. I cannot lose sleep over another Santa thinking they are perfect, but I can assure you, none of us are there.

I know this blog post has been a giant soapbox, I'm sorry. I have a great deal of respect for the Santa I spoke with, I have a great deal I can learn from this individual, but he certainly is not a perfect Santa. I get excited when I learn something new, I get excited when I've figured out a better way to do something. While someone might find themselves in a delusional state thinking they have learned all there is to portraying Santa, I would just say...you are missing a great amount of joy in your life in this frame of mind. Don't let your ego get in the way of being an amazing Santa Claus...we can all learn to be great, but we all must never forget to keep learning.