Dose of Reality : Hard Times Make Santa’s Job a Tough Call

When Santa visited Kester Avenue Elementary School in Van Nuys on Friday, a helicopter carried him to the ground. Then, the jolly old elf was really brought down to earth by the tears of a little girl.

The rotund, red-suited one reached out to touch the outstretched hands of several hundred boys and girls, many clamoring to recite for him their Christmas wish lists.

But it was Ashley Davis who made Santa stop and listen.

Ashley, who has seven brothers and sisters, burst into tears when Santa walked past her first-grade class before she could talk to him. A kindly adult clutched at the 6-year-old’s hand and the pair tailed Santa until Ashley could be introduced to the one man who knows whether she’s been naughty or nice.

Sniffing and nervous, the thin little girl hugged Santa tightly and whispered her request.

“I just want new clothes,” Ashley said. Her mother is raising them on her own, she said, with only the money she earns as a receptionist. “My mother couldn’t buy them and she only gets paid once a week.”

Santa, played by bearded 60-year-old Van Nuys Airport electrician Bob Sironen, could only respond with a hug just as tight.

“I don’t want anybody to cry,” he said, wiping a tear from her face. “This is a happy time of year.”

But in tough economic times, the holidays can make the gap between the haves and have-nots seem a million miles wide.

At the Northridge Fashion Center, Santa reported that some little ones were adding a special request to their lists: “money for mommy and daddy.” At the Panorama Mall, Santa said he was making no promises unless a parent gave him a vigorous nod, indicating the requested gift already was in hand.

Still, there were the pricey signs of excess.

Among the most requested items at the Northridge mall: My Size Barbie, a huge Barbie doll that can swap clothes with a little girl. Compact disc video games also were popular.

At the Fallbrook Mall in West Hills, Santa said he sometimes had to softly break the news to children that they might not get everything they want this year, no matter how good they had been.

“I’ve had a few parents who asked me to nudge their children toward certain toys because the one they wanted was too expensive and they could not afford it,” said 29-year-old Robert Slade, a Bullock’s credit card processor playing Santa for the first time this year.

Yvonne Cortez, who has worked part time as a housecleaner and baby-sitter since being laid off as a cashier last January, decided that Santa already had enough responsibility landing in his lap without her adding to it.

So the single mother from Los Angeles broke the bad news to her four children herself.

“I had to tell them they were only going to get one or two Christmas gifts this year,” said the 29-year-old Cortez, trying to maintain her composure. “They’re lucky they got a Christmas tree.”

Claire Cook’s family of four has felt the pinch of the recession in a different way.

“The economy has been real tight,” said Cook, 37, who lives in Woodland Hills and has two boys, 7-year-old Devin and 9-month-old Tyler. “My husband’s company is planning on moving out of Southern California. We were going to move with the company and had our house on the market and now we just took it off. We don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Maria Ramos said she will start the new year with a new job after spending the past year at home taking care of her two boys, ages 10 and 6, and her 3-year-old daughter.

As both boys shyly told Santa that they wanted Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo game sets, Ramos said she hoped the family could afford such expensive gifts on her husband’s salary.

“They both want it,” she said, shaking her head, “but it’s very tight.”

The less expensive gifts are proving tough to come by.

The number one request from boys--Mighty Morphin Power Rangers--are cheap enough at $10, but impossible to find. The Japanese manufacturer didn’t anticipate that the action figures inspired by a cartoon show would be so popular.

Also sold out--since Thanksgiving--is the $39.99 Criss-Cross Crash, a powerized racetrack, said Vicky Conway, head of the toy department at the Target store in Valencia.

Still, Criss-Cross Crash commercials continue to bombard television kiddie shows--and dominate wish lists.

Other frequent, but tough-to-find requests: Pullout Polly Pocket House ($29.99), the Home Alone Talk Boy recorder ($29.99), and Baby All Gone ($21.99)--a doll children can feed that has certainly lived up to its name.

The life-size Barbie ($119) also has long disappeared from shelves, but plenty of other Barbies and accessories are available.

“What recession?” one of Santa’s helpers said Friday. “There may be a recession, but the parents are still spending money on Barbie.”

Meanwhile, another helper said, “The kids just keep coming and coming.”

Schnaufer is a special correspondent, O’Neill is a staff writer. Times staff writer Martha L. Willman also contributed to this story.