The Long Ho-Ho : Most Santas Don't Go on Duty Until After Thanksgiving, but One Started 4 Weeks Ago

The Long Ho-Ho : Most Santas Don’t Go on Duty Until After Thanksgiving, but One Started 4 Weeks Ago

By BOB POOL

Dec. 3, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Other Santas are just starting to settle in atop their department store thrones.

On Tuesday, though, the holiday season was already half over for a St. Nick named Jon Kappelman.

His sleigh pulled up in a North Pole at a Canoga Park shopping center on Nov. 6--three weeks ahead of Santa’s traditional day-after-Thanksgiving arrival.

That means this jolly fat man’s list of good little boys and girls is already the longest in Los Angeles.

When his 49 days of duty end, his red-velour-covered knee will probably be the town’s shiniest. And stiffest.

Santa’s arrival was accompanied by a blizzard of questions from surprised shoppers at the Fallbrook Mall. Most of them were still in a Halloween mood at the time.

“People asked, ‘Oh, Santa, why are you here so early?’ ” Kappelman acknowledged. “I’d just tell them that I’ve got a lot of kids to take care of.”

Bah, humbug, say the traditionalists.

“It’s too early,” grumbled shopper Barbara Caron of West Hills.

Not hardly, say the kids.

“It’s good,” grinned Caron’s grandson. Five-year-old Jeff Caron of Reseda happily handed his gift list to Santa weeks ago. At the top: Rollerblades.

Fallbrook Mall executive Christine Silvestri said her shopping center wins the city’s Santa derby every year.

“You can tell by the number of trampled poinsettia plants around Santa that it’s been very busy,” she said.

Kappelman wearily nodded in agreement. No visions of sugar plums dance in his head. Just spots from the thousands of camera flashes that have photographed him with children.

This year’s most requested girls’ Christmas gifts are Disney cartoon toys, he said. Boys ask for Batman, Ninja Turtles--and guns.

The 18-year-old college freshman stuffs a pillow under his coat and piles his long blond hair beneath a white wig. He said he probably will wait until Dec. 23 to start his own Christmas shopping.

“I’m not in a hurry for Christmas to get here,” Santa said. “This is a nice time of year.”