Santa's basket is loaded with gifts for good children, but who thinks of giving him some?
In Rio de Janeiro, the good old bearded men dressed in red receive packed lunches, necessary after the lean period of the pandemic which was, more than anywhere else, devastating in Brazil.
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During the Covid crisis,
"Santas found themselves without work"
due to the cancellation of end-of-year face-to-face events, Limachem Cherem, director of the Santa Claus School in Rio, told AFP. , who distributed the packed lunches on Tuesday.
In this establishment like no other, dozens of middle-aged men take singing, acting, diction or body expression lessons to better embody the favorite bearded man of Brazilian children and get hired. by shopping centres, hospitals or nurseries.
But these activities were severely restricted during the holiday season in 2020 and 2021, due to the pandemic, which killed more than 692,000 people in Brazil.
Barrier gestures oblige, there was no longer any question for Santa Claus to take toddlers in his arms.
During the health crisis,
“we only landed five of the usual thirty contracts, and those who worked could just greet the children through a window.
It was very sad”
, says Limachem Cherem, whose school has trained nearly a thousand Santa Clauses in thirty years.
The activity is on the rise again this year, but the packed lunches distributed thanks to donations from a company are welcome for its “students”, retirees with low incomes.
"They go back to work at the end of the year to earn enough to buy gifts for their grandchildren, or even to pay late bills,"
explains the school principal.
For Paulo Roberto Santos, a 63-year-old black Santa Claus with a well-stocked gray beard, it was time for him and his colleagues to receive gifts in turn.
