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. The 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.
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