YES, the Beard is Real

Each June, Roy Piazza begins his transformation: The retired power company worker starts letting his gray-white hair grow, and he stops shaving.

By the end of November he no longer looks like the clean-cut, mild-mannered guy next door, but rather more like the bearded, gregarious guy who wears a big red suit really well.

Piazza, 67, takes being Santa Claus seriously--it’s an expression of his appreciation of children and of a tradition passed down through his family. When Piazza was a child, his father would dress as Santa for the 10 boys and girls in the family. And Piazza has always played Santa for his own children and grandkids.

For the past five years--since he and his wife, Jennie, moved to California from upstate New York--he has been a mall Santa. What’s more, as chairman of his local Kiwanis Club youth committee, he works with kids all year round.

Nearly every day during December, Piazza can be found in the giant green chair at the Shops of Mission Viejo on Crown Valley Parkway. He usually works eight-hour shifts, but some stints go as long as a dozen hours. On busy days, he sees 700 to 1,000 children.

Even the long days, though, are brightened by a child’s hug or the success of coaxing a smile from a tearful boy or girl. And then there’s the honesty he really can’t get anywhere but from a child.

One little girl settled onto his lap this season and told him, “Santa Claus, I like you ‘cause you have teeth.”

Parents and children often marvel at how well he portrays Santa, in personality--he is both gentle and jolly--and in appearance.

Having a real beard has one drawback.

“One little kid took both hands and yanked as hard as he could to try pulling my beard off. After I screamed out, I had to pry him off.”

Piazza sees hundreds of toy lists each day. Recently one from a little boy asked Santa for a toy airplane, a slingshot, a train and a flame-thrower.

But there was also the 7-year-old girl who told him: “Santa, I don’t want any toys. I’m just happy to be with my family.”

Same could be said of Piazza.

After a busy day of playing Santa, he heads down a long hallway to a changing room at the mall and sheds his red suit and the pillow he wears to make his tummy larger.

Then he grabs his lunch bag and heads home, not to the North Pole, but to Laguna Woods.