Review of "Behind the White Beard" by Kay Brooks

Score: 95/100 (9.5 out of 10)

Behind the White Beard is a warm, photo-rich, oral-history-style biography of Virginia Santa performer Dale Ballew!

Do you recall any of your experiences with a Mall Santa? Or did a "Santa" visited your house or Christmas party when you were growing up?

Many of us have an experience like this as Santa has become a ubiquitous presence, brought to life via marketing, media, and—yes—by the hundreds of people who don the beard & red suit in order to play him during the holidays.

These Santas spread comfort, joy, and Christmas spirit every holiday season. But have you ever thought about the people who play them? The men behind the white beards and red suits?

This book does just that, chronicling the experiences of a veteran Santa named Dale Ballew.

We found this book to be incredibly interesting and heartwarming. It's easy to get so fixated on the costume and the character that we forget that there's an actual, living human being behind all of that: someone with thoughts, feelings, emotions, experiences, dreams, motivations, aspirations, and so much more.

So, that's why this biography is so poignant. It really peels back the curtain and reveals the layers behind Dale Ballew, a Santa for almost 20 years!

Could you imagine what a Santa of 20 years must've seen and experienced? That's fascinating!

Now, you'd think that this would be a mostly bright and joyful book (and it is), however, it opens up with quite a bit of darkness, hurt, and trauma. Ballew recalls working at a morgue and a funeral home, which was scary and unsettling and forced him to confront mortality and perhaps even the existence of paranormal, spiritual, or metaphysical things. Now, while that might seem creepy, weird, or irrelevant, it actually might lend credence to the idea that if scary phenomena exists, then positive ones might exist as well: angels or even the Christmas spirit.

Ballew further recalls horrific abuse at the hands of his step-father including frequent belt-whippings, a strike in front of his friends, and even being shot at. Also, there's a profound sense of being unmoored, uncertain, and perhaps even unwanted in Ballew's early life, having virtually no connection or relationship with his biological dad ("Shorty") until the age of 27.

Rather than breaking him down and making him a miserable, depressed, unpleasant person, these terrible things may have contributed to his deep sense of empathy and desire to bring cheer and joy into the lives of children who might not get to experience positive things every day. As we'll get to later, there are quite a few examples of children like that—children who are hurt, sad, desperate, or lonely. If Ballew (as Santa) can bring just a small bit of comfort, cheer, and hope into their lives, he knows he has done his job.

Another thing that's worth noting is his relationship with his maternal grandmother ("Nana"), who was actually loving and supportive. Ballew credits his grandmother as being the most influential person in his life. And perhaps she helped lay some of the groundwork as an example of what a "Santa" could be—an elderly figure who could bring kindness, familiarity, and light in a world that often seems so cruel, confusing, and dark.

Perhaps we're reading too much into that, but that was one of our take aways.

Anyway, remember when we talked about the many children who came to Ballew with a lot of trauma and baggage? Well, one of the little girls asked him for a family, a mommy and a daddy. A little boy asks for peace on earth before leaving. One of the children asks for her mother to get better from illness, which Ballew is forced to improvise by saying that "Santa will pray for her."

Ballew as Santa really went above and beyond. He recounts a story about how he managed to write a letter to get an autistic child a $485 train set. He also goes out of his way for a girl named Olivia, who was one of the first five people to receive open-heart surgery in America at the time. He talks about the time he arranged to arrive in a police car for a child who liked them. In a rather humorous and comedic scene, he also stages being ticketed by police officers in plain view of a child who stands up for Santa and tells the police officers they can't arrest or take away his sleigh because Santa needs to deliver his presents.

This is a really touching and heartwarming biography.

Check it out on Amazon!