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An official Disney Santa at Epcot
We’ve learned that adults are banned from wearing Disney costumes to a Disney park. We also know that any kids old enough (the cutoff is 9 or 10) also can’t do so, at least not if their costumes are too realistic. Now we have another look to add to the list of things not allowed at Disney: Santa Claus.
Official Disney-sanctioned Santa Claus’s still make seasonal appearances at Disney World. What’s going to get you kicked out, or at least reprimanded, is if you too closely resemble Kris Kringle. The Huffington Post reports.
Atlantan Thomas Tolbert was on vacation with his family at Disney World, when staff approached him and told him he needed to tone down the Santa look. This wasn’t some mild resemblance; Tolbert is a professional Santa Claus. This year he was even voted among the top three impersonators at a Santa Claus convention. He must keep the hair and belly year-round, because guests at Disney World were coming up to him and asking for autographs. Park execs really don’t seem to like it when guests attract that sort of attention. That’s super hypocritical, though, because they don’t kick celebrities out of their parks (in fact, they encourage it, and post pictures of such visits all over the official Disney Parks blog), and famous people must attract way more attention than some guy who looks like Santa.
Unlike with the teenager in June, Disney World staff didn’t ask Tolbert to leave. They just asked him to either tone down the look, or to start refusing autographs. They wanted him to explain to people that he wasn’t Santa Claus or there to act as him, and to ask them to leave him alone so he could go about his vacation.
What I want to know is: how much did Tolbert look like Santa? The Huffington Post has a picture, but it’s only from the neck up. He’s clearly got a Santa look going on, but depending on what he was wearing it wouldn’t be enough for me to go bother him (not that I ever would, but I feel like a polo shirt and shorts or something would ruin the effect enough to discourage autograph-seekers). Also, it’s not clear if that photo is from Tolbert’s time at Disney World or from a point when he’s professionally impersonating.
Disney staff’s line about toning down the look makes me wonder just how Tolbert was dressed. Were they telling him that he needed to lose weight, shave, or cut his hair in order to enjoy a Disney World vacation? That’s just unacceptable, if true.
What I’d also like to know is how much Tolbert was encouraging the autograph-seeking. I’m not saying I think he was “ho-ho-hoing” in the middle of the Magic Kingdom, but was he trying to discourage fans at all, or was he just being polite? Was he really causing that much of a disturbance? Disney officials seem way too jumpy about this sort of thing, does it really affect the park experience that much, especially for the negative?
This isn’t the first time Disney World staff has asked someone in their parks to tone down their Santa look. In that case, though, the guy was dressed like Santa and was going around telling kids that he was. That at least makes some sense, especially if it happened during the holiday when Disney’s paying their own Santa staff on site, but I still think Disney World’s going overboard.
The moral of the story seems to be: dress like a tourist at Disney World, it’s the safest way to enjoy your trip unmolested by park staff.
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*(This image by Randy Pertiet is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
