Bradley Carlisle as Santa. Photograph: Courtesy of National Santa AgencyView image in fullscreenBradley Carlisle as Santa. Photograph: Courtesy of National Santa AgencyFirst professional St Nick with Down’s syndrome inducted into International Santa Claus Hall of FameAtlanta’s Bradley Carlisle first played Kris Kringle for kids with Down’s syndrome and has now completed elite Santa Academy
After recently gaining recognition as the first professional Santa Claus with Down’s syndrome in the US, Bradley Carlisle has already gotten a lot more than the traditional serving of milk and cookies that is usually left out for Father Christmas each year.
That is because the 37-year-old community theater actor from suburban Atlanta landed an honorary induction into the International Santa Claus Hall of Fame upon completing one of the largest Christmas performer schools in the US in late August – a distinction meant to recognize the important representation his emergence on the holiday scene has brought, according to his supporters.
As his mother, Debbie Chadrix, told it to the Guardian on Friday, Carlisle’s path to his unique place among what she called the Claus family began at the 2023 holiday party of the Down Syndrome Association of Atlanta (DSAA). Chadrix said the organization’s executive director approached her during the gathering and remarked: “We need a Santa with Down’s syndrome who looks like the kids” invited to the party as the guests of honor.
Read moreThe group’s leader picked Carlisle because of his passion for acting on the local community theater circuit, Chadrix said. Yet Chadrix wasn’t completely sold.
She said her son used to fear Santa growing up because he evidently equated jolly old St Nick’s white gloves with those worn by healthcare providers who took care of him during nonetheless difficult medical experiences. It was only after one Santa in particular slipped his gloves off for Bradley that he warmed up to the concept, she recounted.
Carlisle, however, gamely accepted the offer to transform into Santa for the next DSAA holiday party. He confidently wore the white beard and recognizable red suit, and interacted with more than 200 children involved with the DSAA.
Chadrix said she has never forgotten the looks on many of those children’s faces “when they realized Bradley looked like them – and talked like them, a little bit, too”. And then Bradley declared “he would be our Santa from now on”.
Local news media picked up Carlisle’s story by his second Christmas season as Santa, giving his profile a bump, Chadrix said. And he also appeared on a podcast alongside Rick Rosenthal, who runs Atlanta’s Northern Lights Santa Academy and invited Carlisle to attend a four-day course beginning on 20 August.
At Rosenthal’s academy, which he described as the second largest institution of its kind in the US, Carlisle and others train to carry on in the spirit of figures such as Santa, Mrs Claus and the Christmas elves. Santas in particular receive an education on a wide range of topics, including how to properly dress for the part, adequately maintain their white beards and improvise answers to the heart-wrenching questions children can occasionally ask, especially if grappling with a terminal illness or grieving the loss of a loved one.
Carlisle excelled in that atmosphere, with Chadrix proudly noting that he underwent the same program as all of the other enrollees there. And at a 23 August ceremony on the academy’s final day, Phil Wenz of the Santa Claus Oath Foundation called Carlisle up to a stage.
A video on a social media account for Carlisle showed Wenz complimenting him for the confident style he had displayed while personifying Santa Claus in the lobby outside the ceremony hall.
Wenz alluded to how some of Carlisle’s fellow Claus family members had banded together to cover a completely custom-made Santa suit for him. Carlisle’s photograph would also be shown in New York City’s Times Square as part of the US’s Down Syndrome Awareness Month beginning on 1 October, which is Bradley’s birthday, Wenz continued.
And then Wenz revealed the pièce de résistance: he said he had consulted with a number of Christmas community heavyweights to enshrine him as an honorary member of the International Santa Claus Hall of Fame.
Wenz punctuated the moment with handing Carlisle a badge. Carlisle triumphantly held it up with his right hand while he smiled widely and the audience applauded.
Rosenthal has belonged to that institution in the town of Santa Claus, Indiana, since late 2023. It’s something he considers one of his greatest honors in his 58 years as a Santa. And he said Carlisle merited enshrinement because of his already showing “a magnified sensitivity” to those with Down’s syndrome who are among Santa’s faithful that others in the Claus family simply cannot.
Chadrix said she was notified in advance of the plan to welcome Carlisle to the International Santa Claus Hall of Fame. And she said she made clear, essentially, that she did not want Bradley’s condition to be the only reason he was being enshrined.
She recalled Rosenthal assuring her: “Phil Wenz knows what he’s looking at. And as soon as he saw Bradley as Santa and talking to people and interacting, he knew he has something different and special – and that’s why he got to the hall of fame.”
Among the many to congratulate Carlisle was the DSAA, which shared a link to a television news segment about him published by the Atlanta station WXIA on Thursday.
“Saaaaantaaaaa we know him! So proud of our Santa Bradley,” the organization wrote, adding that those who attend Atlanta’s 3 October Buddy Walk – a DSAA fundraiser at the Kennesaw State University Marietta campus – “might see him incognito”.
Carlisle told WXIA that he enjoyed being Santa “because I like to help with the kids”.
The station also asked him what it feels like to slip into his Santa suit.
