Santa Hank with a first-time visitor. (Photos courtesy Hank Hartz)
For 40 years as a baseball umpire, Hank Hartz was perhaps the least loved on the field.
Coaches and parents would take issue with his calls, and as he put it, on every call he made: “You’re 50% right 100% of the time.”
When the pandemic in 2020 brought baseball to a temporary halt, along with every other sport and public event, Hartz made up for the lost income by driving for Uber, and did what his clean-shaven umpire gig had never allowed him to do: grow out a full, year-round beard.
Santa Hank in action.
“As the beard got a little bit longer, and with my age, it started coming in white,” the 64-year-old recalled. “People said, ‘Hey, you look like Santa Claus!’”
Seeing an opportunity to stand out from the Uber driver pack, Hartz bought a used Santa suit and started driving as the jolly old elf, brightening his passengers’ car rides in an otherwise dark time.
“I had one woman in tears that somebody was trying to bring joy to people while that was going on,” Hartz said. “Covid was a very serious, worldwide event, and that moved me a little bit: I’m bringing joy to people. Even though, to me, I was doing it as a lark, as a marketing thing, it was bringing joy to people.”
And so it was that, in the midst of a pandemic, Hank Hartz – by day an IT worker with the Virginia State Corporation Commission – became “Santa Hank,” a year-round, semi-professional Santa Claus.
Hartz’s Santa journey started during the pandemic.
Now, when he’s not on the clock for his SCC job, Hartz maintains a busy schedule of Santa gigs, ranging from Christmastime events like area parades and an annual Santa brunch, to Christmas-in-July events and other bookings throughout the year.
“I ended up buying a regular Santa suit and started booking myself on different gig platforms, I built a Facebook page, I built a website, and from there it’s just taken off,” he said. “People are calling me up year after year to come back, because it’s so authentic-looking and I’ve got the personality for it.”
Hartz’s license plate now reads: “I M 4 XMAS.” And with his year-round beard, he’s now a member of IBRBS, formerly known as the International Brotherhood of Real Bearded Santas, whose name speaks for itself: no fake beards – or as Hartz said they’re called in the biz, “designer” beards.
While his real beard is appropriately long and white, and while his Uber rides further helped him get into character, Hartz acknowledged some adjustments he needed to make in performing as Santa for children.
Hank Hartz pre-beard.
“Obviously, adults in an Uber, you can be a little bit off-color at times. But you can’t do that with kids. With kids, it’s more like, ‘What have you got on your Christmas list?’
“The weirdest one I’ve had was: ‘I want a little brother.’ I’m like, ‘The sleigh doesn’t have a backseat for a car seat, so I can’t bring any little brothers. But you can talk to Mommy about that.’” Laughing, he added, “You have to be quick on your feet with some replies, because you never know what’s going to come out of the mouth of a child.”
As for his beard, Hartz confirmed he receives the occasional inspection of whether his is real or “designer.”
“There’ll be children that will go, ‘Can I pull on your beard?’ And I say, ‘Of course you can,’ and they’ll say, ‘Oh, it’s real! You must be Santa!’
“The babies will do it just because they’re grabbing on something,” he said. “I’ve had many infants where I’m holding them for their first picture with Santa and they’ll just grab onto the beard and start pulling it. I’ll go, ‘Oh! I need to keep that! That’s mine!’”
Hartz’s booking rates range from $100 on weekdays or $125 on weekends for 30-minute sessions before Thanksgiving, with additional half-hours for $50 or $75, to base rates of $150-$175 in mid-December, $200 on Christmas Eve and $250 on Christmas Day. Now with a few years under his Santa belt, Hartz said his schedule fills up fast, with bookings coming in as early as February.
Since becoming Santa Hank, he said he’s probably put about $3,000 into his Santa attire and equipment. Expenses include trinkets he hands out and printed certificates for children on “the nice list.”
Hartz said his years officiating high-school, college and professional baseball games helped shape his personality to be able to perform as Santa, as did his Uber rides.
“As a sports official, you hear a lot of things from parents, you hear a lot of things from coaches. You have to have a personality that can get along with everybody,” he said.
Of his rideshares, he added: “I had a lot of practice in the Covid year where I would make up lines like, ‘The sleigh’s in the shop so that’s why I’m driving this,’ or, ‘Reindeer food’s getting expensive so I had to get a part-time job.’ Just coming up with different things to make the people smile and feel good about it.”
Hartz, umpire-era.
Hartz said both his Santa gigs and his umpire experience have had effects on his day job at the SCC, where he’s worked for eight years, continuing a career in the computer industry that started in the early ’90s.
“As a baseball umpire, in some cases you’re doing conflict mitigation all the time,” he said. “With IT work, when there are issues, it’s kind of the same thing: you want to find a way to resolve the issues without having to wipe a system clean and starting over. Dealing with the people is the same way.… It’s always a conflict resolution and dealing with an individual to get that done in the best way possible.”
As for the effect that performing as Santa has had on him personally, Hartz pointed back to his baseball days.
Santa in session.
“For 40 years I was always having to deal with adults and parents in a negative environment, when you’re talking about being an umpire. And since then, everything’s positive,” he said.
“I’ll be sitting at a restaurant and I’ll see a child across the room. If I didn’t look like Santa Claus, if I waved to that child, that potentially could be a problem,” he said with a laugh. “But now that I look like Santa Claus, if I’m waving to that child and that child’s smiling and the parents are like, ‘Oh look, there’s Santa Claus’ – it’s a whole different outlook on life if people are smiling when they see you.”
This is the latest installment in our Downtime series, which focuses on businesspeople’s pursuits outside of the office. If you, a co-worker or someone you know around town has a unique way of passing time off the clock, submit suggestions to [email protected]. For previous installments of Downtime, click here.