Don Gonzales has dressed up as Santa Claus for the past five years and says it brings him joy to make children happy. “I feel in my heart that this is what I was meant to do,” he says.
“I wish we had more Santas in the world”
Long-time Santa Continous to Thrive During Hawaiian Holiday
Pitched and published for Honolulu Civil Beat and Boyd's Station.
Driving into Aloha Stadium’s Show Aloha Land, this year’s drive-through Christmas light show, the infamous Santa Claus sits at the entrance with his radio playing Christmas songs people look forward to all year. As people drive by, he waves and welcomes them with a jolly “Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas! Always listen to mommy and daddy, kids.” That is Don Gonzales, and he has dressed up as Santa Claus for the past five years.
Gonzales has worked in multiple professions during his 56 years of living in Hawaii. When he is not dressed up as Santa, he is a foster caregiver, a drummer at several local churches and a fumigator. However, during the holiday season, he has taken on the red and white outfit entertaining people around the island.
Words and Photograph by Shafkat Anowar
Gonzales has done many different jobs in his 58 years, but now he focuses on playing Santa Claus.
After every Santa Claus performance, Gonzales boils water to gargle before going to bed.
Gonzales gurgles in the bathroom after arriving at his house from the show on December 11, 2020. He believes continuous cheering towards the people worsen his voice. For recovery he gurgles frequently after the shows.
Gonzales hits the bed after a long day of work on December 11, 2020. Due to his busy schedule, his usual bed-time crosses midnight. After getting the minimum sleep, he wakes up at 4 a.m to pick up his wife Vicky Gonzales from work.
On busy days, Gonzales, a diabetic, sometimes forgets to take his medicine, including his insulin shots. The next day, to compensate, he takes a double dose.
On Sunday mornings before going to church he enjoys watching football on TV. Sometimes due to busy routines, he misses most of the live games but records them to watch them in leisure time.
Five years ago, Don Gonzales found his calling as Santa Claus when his long white beard caught the eye of a photo studio owner at an Oahu mall.
“She looked at me and said, ‘Is that real?’, and I looked at her and said ‘Of course it’s real,’” he said.
He got the gig playing Santa at the mall’s rotunda for three years and then branched out to other venues, including last year’s Winter Wonderland at the Hawaii Convention Center.
Gonzales, in his Ewa home, prepares to take his grandchildren, Skyzen and Skyrie, to evening Mass.
What started as a side gig became a regular job during the holiday season. Soon after getting enough experience as Santa Claus, he became a familiar face at private parties, photoshoots, and malls. Among his many opportunities and events he has worked at, he believes his biggest achievement was being Santa at last year’s Winter Wonderland at the Hawaiʻi Convention Center.
The coronavirus pandemic has been financially devastating as it has inhibited his income, especially during the holiday season. It has shut down many opportunities where he could work as Santa Claus full-time.
“Maybe when that time comes when I am in my 80s and I am not working anymore and people ask me ‘What did you used to do?’ I will tell them, `I used to be Santa’,” Gonzales says.
Pre-pandemic, Don Gonzales's routine as a Santa was to venture around the island for private parties, mall interactions, and public photoshoots but the coronavirus pandemic has put Santas like Gonzales through tough times in finding jobs. After Show Aloha Land Started in December, he was lucky to find a spot by the route to cheer as a Santa.
“Always listen to mommy and daddy. Okay?” Gonzales told children at Show Aloha Land.
Before the pandemic, to children, “I was real,” Gonzales said. “They could touch me. They could sit on my lap. They could feel me. But now, because of this pandemic, I am like a figment of their imagination, because I am untouchable.”
After a long night, Don Gonzales wipes the sweat off his face. On average, each night he cheers and waves to nearly 1000 cars without any pause. On his busy days, he will get no breaks between his daily chores and Santa Claus gigs.
“Up until this year I had been making anywhere from six to eight thousand dollars in just last week of November to Christmas eve,” said Gonzales about his wages from last year. “This year I am only going to make half of what I usually make because there is not that many shoots on the beach, no private parties because of the pandemic and there is no mall where I could be working full time instead.”
When the clock hits 5:30 in the evening, Don Gonzales starts putting on his Santa outfit backstage of the Christmas light show.
Gonzales prays along with the band members as the priest reads the Holy Bible before the Sunday mass at a local church in Ewa Beach on November 28, 2020. He says he was not like he is now. During the days in his 20s, he was an alcoholic and a drug addict. Now he has been clean for over 30 years. He admits that his practice of going to church has changed him. It was after the birth of his first daughter, that finally made him to quit the addictions.
Gonzales is also a self-taught drummer and has been playing since he was a teen. His regularity in playing drums in different local churches in O‘ahu helped him to recover from his addictions.
Back stage, Gonzales prays with his only daughter Shanenalynn and his other band member before the evening mass at a local church in Waianae, HI on December 6, 2020. “I never wanted my children to see me in that shape because I was a totally different person,” said Gonzales about his final effort to give up drugs and alcohol.
Gonzales reminisces while watching a photo collage in his bedroom that his family made for his 40th birthday. In his family he is always known as the “Big Don,” which later inspired him to be a Santa Clause.
“I want them to pull the car over and come and take pictures with me,” Gonzales said. “Although I am here and they are there, the windows are up, the kids just want to touch me. They put their hands up against the window. The first time they did and I saw that, my heart literally broke into a million pieces.”
The pandemic makes him miss his old days as a Santa when kids used to sit on his lap and pull his bear. “I was real. They could touch me. They could sit on my lap.They could feel me,” he said. “But now because of this pandemic I am like a figment of their imagination, because I am untouchable.”
Besides being a Santa, he is a drummer at two churches, runs a care home for the elderly at his Ewa house and works as a fumigator. He lives with his wife, daughter and grandchildren. He’s also a recovering addict, clean for 30 years.
Gonzales spent eight years as a tour guide in Waikiki, but he wants to finish his work life pursuing his passion, playing Santa Claus.
