Is it possible to change careers at 64? Yes, especially if you believe in Santa Claus.

Bob Phillips’ faith is one thing that landed him his new career at 64. After more than 30 years as a New York advertising executive, he dropped out of mainstream corporate America and began his dream career: to be Santa Claus –but not just any Santa.

Leaving his profession was not on his wish list. Downsized at 56 from a major agency, he tried working for several firms, but, "I couldn’t produce business quickly enough," he says. With severance package and profit sharing trust fund in hand, he took a risk.

"For the last 35 years I was a Christmas historian, investigating where Santa Claus and gift giving began. I took a course on small businesses and opened a Christmas store. I rented a178-year old house in a tourist village in southern New Jersey." But that wasn’t exactly a jingle ride either. Tourist traffic was low and after a year he closed it.

"For months I was in and out of a state of depression, wondering, ‘What am I going do to now?’ One day, I thought, Bob, you love Christmas and Santa. Why don’t you become Santa? I picked myself up and walked into a local mall and said, ‘I want to be your Santa Claus.’ They gave me the name of a company and I left five messages." But no return call.

Finally he left a message saying, "My parents raised me properly and when someone leaves a message you call back"—and they did.

At the interview the human resource director asked him, "How quickly can you grow facial hair?" At five feet, eleven inches and 180 pounds he doesn’t look a thing like Santa, but he got the job because, "I had Santa in my heart."

Padding turned his 37 inch waist to 64 inches. He grew his beard and hair and went to a salon to have them bleached from salt and pepper to white. In this five and half hour ordeal, "You sit with cotton in your nostrils and straws in your mouth to coordinate your breathing, with your eyes covered with cotton." And so he became Santa for seven weeks at various malls.

But he yearned to do more. So he stuffed his promotional materials into a red mailing tube and sent it to 40 companies, landing corporate Santa gigs with QVC and Commerce Bank where today he tells stories to children and poses for hugs.

He’s also Father Christmas for Merck Family’s Old World Christmas, appearing in gift stores and signing ornaments for three hours non-stop.

"But I aspired to be the ultimate Santa—and that’s the White House," he says. So he sent a promotional package and three months later, "I picked up the phone and heard, ‘Santa, this is the White House calling.’" Two months later he was seated in a 200-year old chair next to a 18 and half foot tree, greeting Secret Service agents and their families.

He beams as he tells of being whisked off to the Green Room to meet the President and Mrs. Bush. "I said, ‘Mr. President, you haven’t visited me in over 40 years’, and he said, ‘I know but I’ve been a good boy.’"

Qualifications for the job include eight trips a year to the salon, travel, sensitivity, the ability to communicate and presenting the magic of the man you’re portraying. "Just being fat and doing ho ho hos isn’t enough," says Phillips.

Most of all, "you always have to be up. Kids and adults look at you as hope."

When I ask this Santa what it took for him to make his career change, he said first, you need to believe. Then persist and keep asking, "Is this all there is?" Follow your heart and aspire to be the best at what you do. "It’s worth it, he says, because today he can say, "I am having the time of my life."

© by Andrea Kay