Santa a Tourist Attraction at Farmers Market

Surrounded by crowds of excited teen-agers and exploding flashbulbs, I experienced Los Angeles’ latest tourist attraction the other day in the Fairfax District. Me.

Well, not me , exactly.

Santa Claus was the focus of attention from Japanese visitors who piled by the busload into Farmers Market. That is where I was on rent-a-Santa duty to dispense candy canes and Christmas cheer.

Most of the visitors were young. And most pulled cameras from their pockets and purses and rushed me when they spied Santa strolling among the outdoor shopping center’s famous food and fruit stands.

Each wanted a picture taken standing next to Santa No Ojisan --that jolly old man in the red suit.

“Santa Claus is very famous in Japan,” said tour guide Ken Kanazawa. “He’s in many movies and on TV.”

The visitors explained that Christmas is known as seinaru hi in Japan--a holy day in some parts of the world that is more of a fun day for Japanese.

The day is much the same for some locals who frequent the 56-year-old marketplace, near one of Los Angeles’ oldest Jewish neighborhoods. Many of the 20,000 or so who stop off at Farmers Market each day are more likely to celebrate Hanukkah than Christmas at home.

For that reason, I was nervous when I was first told I was being sent on a four-hour Santa shift there--even after officials of Western Temporary Services assured me that they often recruit Jewish Santas for seasonal work at shopping centers.

But my worries evaporated two weeks ago while on a Santa assignment at a mall in Manhattan Beach. That day, a group from Congregation Tifereth Jacob was conducting a menorah-lighting ceremony across the food court from my Santa stand.

When it was over, the rabbi’s children, 5-year-old Marissa Hyman and her brother, Jonathan, 8, shyly waved at me. Then they came over and wished me happy holidays and handed me a tiny wooden dreidel--a toy top that is a traditional symbol of Hanukkah.

Farmers Market patrons treated Santa with the same kindness.

Nora Handelman, Dorothy Levinson and Tillie Feinstein invited St. Nick to join them for coffee as they sat huddled against Thursday’s unusually chilly weather in front of a marketplace doughnut shop.

Feinstein grabbed the bottom of my beard and lifted it up. “I want to see who’s underneath there,” she exclaimed.

Even the oldest of shoppers grinned when I stopped them to ask if they’d been good little girls or boys this year. They beamed when I reached into my candy cane bag to reward those who claimed to have been nice.

I got a laugh when male shoppers happily confessed to being naughty. “Maybe Santa should give you the whole bag,” I told them.

When a 65ish woman who said her name was Doris demanded to know what Santa was bringing her this year, I suggested she sit on my knee and discuss the matter.

To my surprise, she agreed. “This is the first time in my life I’ve ever sat on Santa’s lap,” Doris said. Her wish list included a cure for AIDS, rain for Los Angeles “and a man for me.”

Tourists at Farmers Market had different requests for Santa, however.

Al Rolnick of Wilmette, Ill., was wishing for warmer sunshine for his Southern California visit. He could have stayed home if he wanted to be cold at Christmastime, he indicated.

But Robyn Ford of New Zealand was looking for snow. It’s summertime in Auckland, where she lives. Her family was stopping off briefly in Los Angeles on its way to Colorado for a skiing vacation, she said.

Vans and tour buses full of camera-wielding visitors were still pulling up when it came time for Santa to pull out.

I changed out of my Santa suit and beard in market manager Sherif Barsoum’s office before leaving. I hid the red suit in a bag.

As I walked out wearing jeans and a sweater, I reflexively waved toward a new group of Japanese tourists flocking in from the parking lot.

They ignored me.