By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
WALDPORT – Bob Mills has seen it all during his 40 years of portraying Santa Claus – the crying babies, the pets, and families in coordinated Christmas outfits.
He got all of those and a bit more Saturday during a three-hour “photos with Santa” event at Hi-School Pharmacy as families lined up at the back of the store waiting their turn to pose with the jolly old elf.
“I love it,” said Mills, 75, of Vancouver, Wash. who learned the trade from his father and worked with him for 18 years. “It’s the thrill of seeing the kids’ eyes — and the challenges. I could write a book.”
Hi-School Pharmacy hires Mills and shuttles him and a three-person corporate crew to seven of its stores around Oregon and southwest Washington where they calm babies, corral kids and dogs and pose families to create Christmas memories.
Except for three wailing babies that challenged their families and Santa right off the bat Saturday, the process worked like a well-oiled North Pole workshop.
“I’m not scared,” 7-year-old Wyatt Forcier of Yachats declared after following the three screaming babies. With prompting by Santa – and a candy cane – he asked for new headphones for Christmas as his mother, Ashley Tough smiled in the background.
Beth Brock and Theodore Blacklaw of Waldport brought their Pekingese-poodle mix to pose it with Santa. “It’s for Grandma,” Blacklaw laughed as he tried to explain their gift and praised both their dog and Santa for pulling off the picture without a hitch.
“He did good. I’m surprised,” he said.
Mary VanderMeiden, 81, and Bella, her 2-year-old chihuahua-terrier mix are a familiar sight on their daily walks around Waldport. VanderMeiden needed no encouraging to sit in Santa’s lap for their picture and Bella stayed calm after checking out his flowing white beard.
“She’s the mascot at Hi-School Pharmacy,” VanderMeiden explained. “She loves them and they love her.”
James Sylvia and Mandy Bassett – in a Mrs. Claus dress — came over from Toledo with Jace, 8, and Nathaniel, 5, sporting bright holiday sweaters and hats for their first family Christmas photo. It went off without a hitch, even when Santa swapped places with Sylvia and jokingly asked for a trip to Tahiti after the holidays.
“Santa was very jolly …” Sylvia said afterwards.
And that’s the whole point, said Mills, who happily tells stories of now-familiar families who posed for photos over the years with him or his father and of a Woodland, Wash. family who presented him with an album of four generations of their pictures.
“It’s nice having a whole mantle with the same Santa and generations of one family,” he said.
Richard O’Bryan, a corporate employee who takes the pictures, says Mills uses his decades of experience to make it work.
“He’s good,” O’Bryan said. “He’s the one who carries us all.”
The children, the families — and even the dogs — seemed to agree Saturday.
