Boy Can Thank Santa for the Greatest Gift of All--Life : Christmas: Red Cross will honor mall’s St. Nick who revived a choking 11-year-old.

For 11-year-old Renny Schuffman, Santa lives.

And because of Santa, in this case a 37-year-old film maker who was free-lancing as a shopping mall St. Nick, Renny will celebrate a special Christmas today.

The sixth-grader was standing in line at Santa’s booth in the Panorama Mall on Dec. 12 when he choked on a wad of chewing gum and passed out.

But luckily, Daniel Hobbit, the mall’s Santa on duty, knew cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Hobbit leaped out of his chair and immediately began applying the life-saving technique he had learned years ago. The piece of gum was dislodged, and Renny came to within a few minutes.

Hobbit, a dyed-in-the-wool Santa if ever there was one, also had the presence of mind to keep his fluffy white fake beard in place the whole time because he “didn’t want to blow the image” for the other children who were watching in horror.

Later, when the media descended on the rescue scene, Hobbit wouldn’t tell reporters his name. Television news stories referred to him as “Santa.” And one newspaper account gave his name as Seth Applegate. Hobbit says no one caught on to the joke, but Applegate was the name of a character who donned a Santa outfit in last year’s movie “Ernest Saves Christmas.”

“I wanted Santa to be the hero,” said Hobbit, explaining the alias.

Now the Red Cross plans to give Hobbit an award for his life-saving act.

And Renny, who is fully recovered from the choking incident, finally met the real man behind the red suit a few days ago.

“As far as I’m concerned, he is Santa,” Renny said as he sat across from Hobbit in the living room of the boy’s Reseda home.

Renny and his mother, Dorie Schuffman, had gone shopping at the Panorama Mall and decided to have Renny’s picture taken with Santa. Renny said he inadvertently swallowed a piece of bubble gum, and it became lodged midway down his windpipe.

When he passed out, he was a few steps from Hobbit.

“I saw him coming at me holding his throat,” said Hobbit, a Canoga Park resident. “I heard him (gasp) ‘Santa.’ The only thing I thought was that I’ve got to get some air into this guy.

“Everybody was so panicked at this point. There were a dozen children watching. It went through my mind that I didn’t want to pull off the beard. I didn’t want to blow the image for these little people.”

The beard fortunately didn’t get in the way, and Renny regained consciousness within a few minutes. When he came to, he was cradled in Hobbit’s arms. The first words out of his mouth were “Santa, I love you.”

“I’ll remember that all my life,” Hobbit said.

Hobbit, who has directed programs for cable television and currently is working on a documentary about psychic phenomena, said he decided to apply for the Santa job after seeing an ad in Drama-Logue, a theatrical trade magazine. “He’s always doing unexpected things,” said his wife, Fran. “He’s like a big kid himself.”

“I thought it would be something different--and a lot of fun,” Hobbit said. As Santa, he heard the usual requests for Barbie dolls and Nintendo sets. But he also listened to children confide their wishes to see relatives who had died. “I can’t describe what it’s like to share their visions and joys,” he said.

Hobbit said he learned CPR several years ago in a Red Cross training course. He had used the technique only once before when he worked with the handicapped at a Spastic Children’s Foundation center in Chatsworth.

Joy Townsend, safety specialist for the Los Angeles chapter of the American Red Cross, said Hobbit will receive a certificate of commendation. “What he did is predicated on knowledge that the average citizen should have and should be able to use in an accident-producing situation,” she said. “It’s what the spirit of Christmas is all about.”

After news stories about the rescue appeared, children came to see Hobbit at the mall to tell him that he was their hero and that what he did made them believe in Santa Claus, Hobbit said. And he and Renny have become friends and plan to spend Christmas together.

Although he knows Hobbit isn’t really Santa Claus, Renny, who attends Portola Junior High School in Tarzana, says unabashedly that he believes in old St. Nick. Classmates have ribbed him about this, but he says he tells them that “if you believe in the spirit of Santa Claus and Christmas, your life will be better.”

An avid writer, Renny is crafting a story about the choking incident that he says he wants to read to his own children one day. “I just don’t know what I would have done if Santa Claus didn’t know CPR,” he wrote.