'Tis a Reason to Be Jolly: Mall Rehires Santa

By Fredrick Kunkle

Friday, October 24, 2008

Yes, Virginia, there is a clause, and it's in a new contract that will allow Santa to return to work.

Tysons Corner Center and Santa -- aka Michael Graham -- reached agreement in principle yesterday to return him to the Santaland in the Fairfax County mall where he has dazzled tens of thousands of children for 18 years, both sides said.

After an angry and impassioned outcry that included thousands of e-mails, phone calls, an online petition and the threat of a boycott, America's sixth-largest mall reversed course, giving the drama a happy ending that seemed to have been snatched from the screenplay of "Miracle on 34th Street.''

As the final details were being scrutinized by lawyers, Graham called off a scheduled news conference yesterday morning at the shopping mall and headed home to a small town in Tennessee where he works as a carpenter the rest of the year. As part of the deal, Graham also agreed not to comment to the media.

His admirers were joyful that Graham would return to Northern Virginia's North Pole.

"I'm just pleased that the power of the people, and the voices of the people, has been heard," said Tina Rodell, a mother in Reston who has taken her son Pierce, now 4, to see Santa at Tysons Corner Center for the past three years. Her husband, Hugh Rodell, who runs North Star Christmas Trees in Beltsville, had gone to the mall for the news conference to make an offer of his own. He had a $1,000 check in his pocket for Graham and hoped to find 29 other sponsors to raise a total of $30,000 -- the sum that Graham had been contracted to receive -- to bring him back to Northern Virginia.

A spokeswoman for the mall said that although the agreement is not yet official, all sides are working toward that end.

"We are doing everything we can to fulfill the needs and the request of the community," said Allison Fischer, a spokeswoman for Macerich Co., which operates the mall. "All we're hoping for is a happy ending."

Graham, who lives in Sevierville, Tenn., played Santa for the first time 23 years ago. People who had sat on his lap as children would bring their own children to see him, and family albums are filled with chronological testaments to the tradition.

Parents marveled at his patience, his demeanor and his ability to draw out children. The December 1998 Southern Living Magazine singled him out as best in class.

"He is Santa," said June Bogan, who related the time when, at 55, she sat on Santa's lap for a picture. "Every time I think of that late afternoon when the mall was not crowded and he said it would be fun to let this overweight, middle-aged woman who has a different sense of humor sit on his knee and have my picture taken, I just get that Christmas feeling all over again," said Bogan, 62.

Mall managers had said they signed a new company for the Christmas season this year in hopes of enhancing the experience for families by remodeling the North Pole set and shortening the wait. What they did not understand was how many people were willing to drive from outside the region and wait for an hour or more to allow their children to experience the magic that Graham brought to the role.

News that Santa had been sacked traveled swiftly across the country. Radio stations from Oregon, Wisconsin and Boston aired the story. Offers for Graham came in from other marketing departments and an online Santa-brokering company. An e-mail was circulated that identified Macerich's chief executive and reported his $2.5 million salary.

Pamela Deese, a lawyer at Arent Fox, who was handling the case pro bono, said both sides agreed that Graham would work this season only at Tysons Corner and that he would receive the pay that he was to receive under his previous contract. Graham signed a 10-year deal in 1993 that was renewed and then extended to 2012.

Graham was supposed to make $30,000 this year. Last year's five-week contract paid him $29,000 to work 10 hours a day, seven days a week -- except Sundays, when he worked noon to 6 p.m. The contract did not include expenses, such as paying for a hotel room, meals, a rental car or travel from Tennessee, Deese said. Graham also buys three custom-made red velvet suits every year -- with rabbit fur fringe -- that cost $900 each. Boots go for $725.

Graham acknowledged that he should have had the contract reviewed by a lawyer, because it contained a clause that allowed the mall to cancel the deal. But he said he did not know that his services were not needed this year until he contacted the mall in late September.

World Wide Photography, the company the mall hired this year to arrange family pictures with Santa, has also agreed in principle to the deal, Deese said. Steve Hardin, senior vice president for World Wide Photography, referred calls to her.

Tina Rodell said the mall should have handled the situation better.

"I think the thing that's interesting here is that Tysons Corner Center totally underestimated the importance of family traditions and totally disconnected from their customers," said Rodell, 45, of Reston. "They're not standing in lines hearing what their customers were saying."

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.

Tagged: christmas, Santa Claus, Tysons Corner Center

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