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Every fall, Anna Weggel’s husband, Brant Miller, dyes his hair and beard bright white, adds liquid blush to his already rosy cheeks, and transforms into Santa Sam, who is—according to his employer—the most-visited Santa Claus at the Mall of America located in Bloomington, Minnesota. Being the busiest Santa at the largest mall in the country has a certain seasonal prestige (Brant already has more than 2,300 appointments booked for the season), but what about the rest of the family? Or more specifically, Anna, who works full time as a podcast producer. She becomes a solo-parenting Mrs. Claus, outnumbered by their 10-month-old and three-year-old, with nary a helper elf in sight. Holidays can be rough on all of us, but we re sending extra special wishes to the self-described “world’s youngest Mrs. Claus.”
So tell me how the season begins for you.
Beginning November 16, I have 29 solo parent days. I know this because I have a countdown calendar, not unlike a Christmas countdown calendar, but instead of getting excited for Christmas, I’m excited to have my husband back. Fifteen of the days are full weekend days or days with no daycare—those are the really tough ones. I’m hoping that with a three-year-old and 10-month-old, this is going to be the hardest year. But who knows what future years will be like.
This means I’m dropping the kids off, picking them up, and doing dinner, bath, and bedtime by myself. We typically have very equal parenting and working duties, and to do it 100% alone is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
Brant’s usually at the mall by either 9 or 10 a.m. and home after the kids are in bed. If it’s pet night, he’s home closer to 10 or 10:30 p.m., because pet nights go longer. His dressing room is an old Gap dressing room. Did you know that?
What are pet nights?
It’s when pets come to visit him instead of kids. People bring their iguanas, cats, dogs, gerbils, and hamsters. So if it’s a pet night, it s later, because people without kids can go longer.
So he’s working, like, 12 hour shifts?
He is. I mean, he sees thousands of kids every year. The appointments are, like, three to five minutes each.
How did you first discover that Brant was Santa Claus?
This is his ninth year of doing it. I knew he was Santa before we started dating. I thought it was really cool. I m an actor, he s an actor, and it seemed like a wonderful Christmas gig. And, um, I will admit he is very jolly.
How old was he when he started playing Santa Claus?
He’s 42 now, so 33.
Which is really young, right?
Yeah, and what s cool is when you are gray, but you are in your thirties or forties, people think you look gorgeous because their brains can’t put together this old person’s hair with this youthful vibe and complexion. Brant has gone viral on Reddit as Santa and the comments were like, “What is your skin-care routine?” Everyone wanted to know. His routine is that he’s in his early forties.
But it takes a lot to go white. Many, many hours in hair appointments. The dyeing process starts in early November, and you can’t go from brown and gray hair to white. It has to go light brown, orange, and then blonde. Then you can finally go white, and then the white has to be redone every two weeks.
He cuts off his beard every Christmas day, and he starts growing it right then for the next year. We all watch him cut it off because it would be too shocking for a child to see him fully as Santa and then see his actual face for the first time in an entire year. But literally hours later the beard starts growing back, like Tim Allen in The Santa Claus.
Does any of this affect your attraction?
No, no, he’s so handsome as Santa. It’s not like a kink. It could be. But it’s not. I remember the first year when I was dating him, he went through the transformation and he said something to me like, “We all look the same with the lights off.” And it was a joke, but it’s true. I will say neither child was conceived with Santa. Proud of that.
Does his white beard hair ever clog up the sink or anything?
Fuck yes! All the time. There’s white curly white hair all over my bathroom.
Where does he get his Santa suit? And what is his makeup routine like?
It is all hand tailored for Brant. The woman who currently makes his clothes is an oncology nurse who used to work at the Minnesota opera and the Guthrie costume shop. Her name is Sondra. He also wear Birkenstock clogs.
He also uses very high-end products—like, way nicer than me, including multiple Olaplexes to maintain his hair and beard color, along with Maybelline foundation and then a white makeup called MEHRON, which apparently a lot of Santas use. The blush is a mystery vial of liquid makeup that his mom gave him. The label wore off, but I think it’s Benetint!
What is child care normally like and how does it change during the Christmas season?
So Luna’s three and a half, Remy’s 10 months old. They go to full-time day care. Remy is a massive baby. He’s like 22 pounds now. I had to make scrambled eggs for him the other day. I was holding him on my hip and my body was screaming by the time I was done.
I thought I was going to have like a little baby in my arms and a very verbal, compliant toddler. That’s what I thought this Christmas season was going to look like. The 10-month-old can crawl across the house in five seconds. He can pull up on anything; he screams if I leave his sight. I have not peed or pooped without him since Santa season started. And then if the baby actually falls asleep, I carry my daughter everywhere we go, because if she pounds her feet on the ground, he wakes up.
It’s the hardest when there are unstructured hours. There’s a park down the street I wanted to walk to. It was, like, 32 degrees, so I got them both in big winter coats, put hats on, wrapped them in blankets, put them in the wagon, closed the garage door, took them to the park. They were both swinging. That was a happy moment. And then Luna was covered in mud, so I had to carry her with no shoes on, strap her back into the wagon, and we made it all the way home. And I’m like, surely that ate up some time. It was 31 minutes. Thirty-one minutes.
How do you explain where dad is?
Dad’s at the mall. Luna completely understands. She calls him Santa daddy when he turns white. She came up with that at one and a half. She s like, “Is daddy daddy today? Or is he Santa daddy today?” That means “Is he going to be at the mall or is he going to be home with us?” I’ve witnessed a child asking her questions about this, and she’s like, “Oh, obviously his beard is white now because he dyed it white and he’s Santa now.” Like, it couldn’t be more clear.
So how do you guys separate the myth of Santa with mall Santa?
I don’t think she cares. Sometimes we’re like, “Daddy works for Santa,”
I saw a social media post where he disguised himself at her drop off.
Yesterday he forgot his disguise. So I left him in the car in a corner of the parking lot and he pulled up his hood. He looked so sketchy trying to hide in a daycare parking lot. The disguise that he thinks works really well, in my opinion, does not. It’s like a ship captain’s wool hat with ear flaps and it comes with a balaclava he pulls it up over his beard. His beard is always bursting out of it.
That just looks more like Santa in disguise.
100%
Why does he feel like he has to hide it though?
He took Luna to dance class a couple of weeks ago and a couple of the kids were like, “Santa!!!” And he was like, “Hello….” You know? He s Santa in street clothes. A lot of professional Santas embody the character of Santa 365 days a year. They get red cars with antlers on the front. They wear red coats. They love to be recognized. That is not Brant. Only in the context of seeing kids as Santa does he want to embody that character.
But because the beard is perma-attached to his face—the company he works for only hires “real-beard” Santas—he is not ready to have kids sit on his lap or be in character. It s also weird when he s in jeans. You know, like, I grew up Catholic and if I ever saw the priest in jeans I was like…. “What?”
Do you see yourself as Mrs. Claus?
It’s just not natural for a Mrs. Claus to have young children. I’m like the opposite of Mrs. Claus. I wish I could be her, but Santas are older, traditionally, so their wives are older. They get to, like, be retired, and make cookies. I wish! Oh my God, that would be the best.
He would love to do this for the rest of his life. So, I’m really hoping that we’ll all work there someday with him. Like the kids will be elves and check people in. Or maybe photographers. And I can do whatever—be Mrs. Claus, or do social media. Something like that.
Have there been any solo parenting low points?
I know single parents do this all the time, but I’m just dreaming of January when I have one kid, and he has the other kid in another room and there s just this harmony. This is the sacrifice of Santa, and also we desperately need a windfall of money to be able to afford daycare. In our hardest times, when we re like “This is relentless, why is he doing this?” It’s for money. We’re very lucky to have that.
By the end of the night, I feel like a truck hit me. Brant’s actually very helpful when he comes home. He also usually wants a kiss or a hug and I’ll do it, but I’m not gonna hold his hand while we’re watching a Christmas rom com. We are on opposite ends of the couch just breathing. And we watch those not because we’re so Christmassy. It’s because that is the level that our brains can comprehend right now.
But also, I mean, to have a living, breathing Santa inside your house definitely creates the spirit of Christmas. When we visit and I see him in his chair, it’s like reuniting with a long lost loved one, because it feels like I’ve been doing years of parenting since I saw him the night before. But the greatest gift, besides money, is that I now feel empowered to care for both kids by myself, which I was terrified about. Now I’m like, Oh, I can do this. I can.
This interview was lightly edited and condensed.