STANTON : Santa’s Stand-In Will Be Taking Calls

Beginning Monday, an ex-stuntman will answer a telephone at City Hall and, dropping his voice an octave, say: “Hello, this is Santa Claus.”

Most people, once they reach a certain age, accept the fact that Santa Claus is a cheerful, white-bearded myth. But each winter thousands of adults dress up in red outfits, encourage their children to write to the North Pole or otherwise perpetuate the fantasy of Christmas.

From 3 to 5 p.m., children can call (714) 220-2220, Ext. 276 to hear Santa’s deep, snow-blown rumble.

Stanton’s Santa is John Craig, 74, who is an unlikely St. Nick. In his youth, the Anaheim resident was a stuntman at 20th Century Fox. He leaped from windows, fell down stairs, rolled under trains and rode galloping horses.

“I ended up with a bad back,” Craig said recently as he recalled those days. “I have to take pain pills because of all that stuff.”

Craig also had a lifelong interest in theater and entertainment. He started stage managing during World War II after he was hospitalized by a plane crash. He organized shows featuring Jack Benny and Bob Hope for the Army Air Corps. After the war, Craig studied at the Pasadena Playhouse, where Charles Bronson was a classmate.

In 1968 Craig began directing and acting in community theater, and now works in Anaheim, Garden Grove and Stanton. He said that his best-received roles have been as villains in plays such as “Love From a Stranger” in which Craig played a man who marries women for their money and then systematically murders them. “People like me better as a villain,” Craig said.

Craig put on a Santa outfit for the first time earlier this month and practiced a friendly wave and a few ho-ho-hos. He walked around the outside of City Hall and was gawked at by a child in a car and a couple strolling by.

Last year Craig also answered the Santa Hotline for the city, but only got a few calls, he said. He remembers one young girl pleading for a bicycle. “I asked her if she was a good girl and if she minds her parents,” he said. She asked, “Are you really Santa Claus?” he said.

Craig said his credibility is lower with older children. “I don’t like it when teen-agers call,” he said. “They’re just calling us as a gag, to poke fun at us.”

Though Craig knows he’s only acting, he said Santa can have a positive influence on children.

“If you want to please Santa Claus, make sure that you mind your mother and father,” Craig says. “Be a close-knit family. That’s what makes Santa happy.”