There are many ways to celebrate the holidays. While some light the Hannukah candles, some decorate Christmas trees. And for some, well, they do a little bit of both.

This is a story about an out-of-the-ordinary Santa. His real name is Rick Rosenthal. He also happens to be Jewish (Modern Orthodox, to be precise).

Santa Rick came to StoryCorps with an old friend and mentee, Adam Roseman, to talk about how he found his calling.

RosenthalExtra2

In addition to his day-to-day work as Santa, Rick started and now runs one of the largest Santa schools in the country.

Top photo: Adam Roseman and Rick Rosenthal pose after their StoryCorps interview in Atlanta, GA in September 2018. By Brenda Ford for StoryCorps.
Bottom photo: Rick Rosenthal poses in full Santa regalia. Courtesy Rick Rosenthal.

Originally aired December 7, 2018, on NPR’s Morning Edition.