Inside Santa Camp: Dan Greenleaf’s Mission to Train the Next Generation of Santas
Dan Greenleaf teaches aspiring Santas, Mrs. Clauses and elves how to spread joy and fun
Dan Greenleaf, a white-bearded bear of a man, stood before a semicircle of a dozen adult campers, many with white beards. “Laugh from your belly and let out a ‘ho ho ho,’” he instructed at his first session of the Santa Camp he co-founded in 2016 to train professional Santas.
As Dan let out a booming “ho ho ho,” the campers followed suit, and the joyous sound echoed through the rustic, beamed lodge nestled in the woods of Greenfield, New Hampshire. Dan’s heart swelled, thinking of all the smiles these Santas-in-training would bring to kids’ faces that holiday-season…and for years to come.
Dan Greenleaf: Always a Santa at heart
Since childhood, Santa has played a special part in Dan’s life. His father and an uncle who lived across the street from their Merrimack, New Hampshire, home played Santa for many years at the family’s church. In the 1990s, Dan was tickled to play Santa himself at the local ski resort where he taught skiing. He would zip down the hill in costume to delight both children and adults.
Then in 2008, Dan was asked to play Santa at a school staff Christmas party. With his white head of hair and matching beard, Santa belly and jolly personality, he was a hit. This is so much fun, I should do more of this, he thought.
Dan made about a dozen Santa appearances that year, at private homes and at Christmas parties. Soon, he landed a gig as Santa at Boston Children’s Hospital. When he walked in, the kids’ faces and eyes lit up with surprise and excitement, a priceless joy—and Dan knew he’d found his true calling.
Each season, his schedule became busier and his joy grew. In 2012, he and his wife, Diana—a Mrs. Claus—attended a conference of professional Santas. Dan and two of his new jolly pals soon created the New England Santa Society, for camaraderie and sharing how-to-be-a Santa tips. And the members—some with more than 25 years of experience—got to thinking that there should be a class where people could learn to be Santa, and the New England Santa Society Santa Camp was born.
Spreading joy during the holiday season
The group decided they would hold the camp in summer so the students would have plenty of at-home practice time before the holiday season. They found a lodge on a lake and put out a call for wannabe Santas to attend their three-day summer camp.
To their joy, dozens of people signed up.
They offered classes that included (of course) how to “ho ho ho,” use music and storytelling and how to interact with children of different personalities and temperaments. At night, the Santas would sit around the campfire and play the kazoo, share stories and have pajama parties—in red-and-white striped onesies.
In 2018, the camp expanded to include training for aspiring Mrs. Clauses and elves. Over time, they also drew in more diversity, welcoming, among others, Black Santas and one who has a disability and communicates with an iPad. In 2022, the program was even featured in an HBO Max documentary called Santa Camp.
The camp offers so much fun and camaraderie that many Santa alumni return year after year—Tedd Merlan and his wife, Cherie, a Mrs. Claus, among them. “It’s hard to describe how it feels to be in a group of 80 Santas, Mrs. Clauses and elves. We laughed our way through the entire weekend,” Tedd told the newspaper The Valley Breeze.
Dan, who now appears as Santa at about 90 events a year, finished co-leading the ninth season of camp in August. “I have the best job, there’s nothing better than bringing joy, happiness and the wonder of the season to everybody,” Dan, 73, says. “I have the philosophy that if a child believes I’m Santa, I am real. Those who go to Santa Camp come away with the idea that we’re not there to perform. We are there to be that child’s Santa, Mrs. Claus or elf. And that’s what we’re striving for…for every child to believe that you are the real Santa.”
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