'Santa School' taught me how be a year-round professional Santa. Here's how I act with kids so they think I'm the real thing.

• Michael Facherty, 71, retired after a career in IT and now plays Santa year-round.
• He once traveled the UK with reindeer, delivering groceries to contest winners.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Michael Facherty, a 71-year-old professional Santa based in Henley, UK. It has been edited for length and clarity.

The first time I was Santa was at my son's school. I was in my 30s. I kind of got lumbered with it when I was new on the PTA, but I ended up absolutely loving it.

Later on, the insurance company where I did IT wanted a Santa for a children's party, and because I was a bit chubby and I had a beard, they asked me. Of course I jumped at the chance.

I retired 11 years ago. At around the same time, an actress I knew was working at a grotto which needed a Santa. I would come through a pretend chimney and sit and tell a story to groups of children.

I saw a documentary on TV called "Bad Santas" where an agency, Ministry of Fun, took three unemployed guys and tried to make them into Santas. So I contacted the agency, and they invited me to their next Santa School.

It's a one-day training for new Santa helpers and a refresher for the old hands. It involved learning about the most popular toys of that year, the names of the reindeer, and how to say "merry Christmas" in different languages: Makaton, Welsh, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, Japanese, Finnish, Swedish. People are chuffed if you address them in their own language.

Now, at 71, I work all year round

The main thrust of the work takes place over 10 weeks, from mid-October to Christmas. The rest of the year I work as a storyteller and actor.

This year I have gigs pretty much every day from late November until Christmas.

Gigs vary hugely in length: anything from a 15-minute home or Zoom visit to three hours recording advertisements to a 10-hour day in a grotto.

Zoom visits started during COVID; I couldn't do doorstep visits. It led to me doing it internationally for people in America and Canada throughout the year.

I've mainly been with two agencies, but I also generate a lot of my own work through word of mouth, repeat business, and enquiries after press and TV coverage.

One of the agencies I work with pays almost £1,000, which is around $1,200, for fake theatrical white beards, but mine is real. A lot of the younger, healthier Santas use a belly stuffer which hangs down over their shoulders and never looks quite right. The benefit of being old is that I have my own.

How much I make as a Santa varies

I do quite a lot free of charge for charities. In one week I did two gigs: a commercial gig paying £250, and a voluntary one collecting toys to gift to children in hospital.

An agency asked me to visit someone on Christmas Day, which I don't really want to do, so I asked for at least £1,000 for me and £500 for my driver. If you really don't want a job, you price high and hope they say no.

Gigs for bigger clients tend to be better paid. I once did an outdoor photo shoot at Gatwick Airport in London. The sleigh was being pulled by an airplane. That was really fun. I was paid £250 for that one.

The nicest corporate gig was when the supermarket chain Morrisons sent me away for a week traveling the country with reindeer. They're actually quite tiny considering all the work they do and how far they travel. I visited people who'd won a Christmas draw to have their shopping delivered by Santa. That job paid around £600.

The secret to being a good Santa is being able to hide the fact that you don't know everything

If you don't have a child's details, you have to find a way to get their name without making it obvious that you didn't already know it. I say something like, "Oh, yes, it's you. Gosh, aren't you getting tall? Remind me of your name — it's not Jeremiah, is it?"

Then they say, "No, it's Tom."

"Tom, that's it!"

Quite often children get scared, so I just talk to the grown-ups. If the child settles down, I ask the parent to sit next to me with the child on their lap.

One of the most lovely things is when you've got a baby who isn't scared and just looks up into your eyes while you look down at them. That makes a wonderful photo.

It's important to remember as a professional Santa that it's not about you or the grown-ups — it's about a child meeting the "real" Santa, and it's your job to make it a special experience for them.