Bloomingdale’s Santa Claus detects surge in stressed-out adults

Bloomberg

Santa Claus was perched on his throne at the Bloomingdale’s in midtown Manhattan. It was slow, a weekday before the after-school rush, so he knew what to expect: grown-ups.
“When it’s quiet,” Santa said, “you get more adults taking selfies.”
Sure enough, minutes later a woman walked past the giant FAO Schwartz stuffed animals and caught his eye. “Can I sit on your knee?” Of course. They laughed and smiled wide as an elf snapped their picture. For Joseph Rembisz, the 71-year-old who is the flagship Bloomingdale’s St. Nick five days a week, patrons are pretty much evenly divided between those who might still believe in Santa and those who most surely do not. These days, “the level of wanting to reach out and reconnect to something that made them feel good is very powerful.”
And what is it the more mature New Yorker wants for Christmas? World peace. He has fielded the request for years—even from kids—but has noticed a recent surge. Blame North Korea’s nuclear-weapons programme, the terrorist attacks in Manhattan this year, tax reform, subway glitches, climate change, the stress of the season, any or all of it. Rembisz said his customers are more than ever looking for something that feels safe, and hopeful.
“People are more concerned, more aware. They’ve seen more things.” He said he responds to them in a fashion that acknowledges the fleeting moment of pretense. Rembisz has been pulling Santa duty on and off since he was in his 20s, at shopping malls, corporate events, house visits, even in a musical rendition of “Miracle on 34th Street.”
Children don’t whisper gift-hopes in his ear anymore. They arrive with visual aids, swiping through images of what they want or showing screen shots of handwritten inventories. Some simply direct him to their Amazon.com wishlists. Even when he’s not on the clock at Bloomingdale’s, he’s in demand. People dash out of shops, asking for pictures and sometimes more.