UPDATED! Repeating Events... Redux – This is a total rewrite of my former paper about avoiding scheduling conflicts, greatly expanded and with many new illustrations. ’Tis the season to pencil-in bookings and do some long-range planning. And if you should find conflicts, there is no better time to deal with them than now. Also available here as a web page.
Who says Santa only works one night a year?! In The Santa Cycle I review many key tasks that Santa can do throughout the year to make sure he's ready for the big day when it rolls around. Also available here as a web page if you cannot read Word files.
A Visit from St. Nicholas I altered the classic Moore poem to be more appropriate coming from Santa’s lips, using the first person for Santa and giving the original first person the name “Pa”. I also recast the sentences that refer to Santa in an elf-like sense—it’s no longer a miniature sleigh, but a magnificent sleigh! I have also replaced the pipe with a peppermint stick, but as with the rest, feel free to mix some of this with some of that! I hope you enjoy it and get a lot of use from it. You are welcome to claim credit for the edits when you are in the role of Santa, but please give credit to me if you are distributing it to Santa groups or reprinting it. Thanks!
Google Calendar for Santas - This is a brief introduction to Google Calendar as a powerful yet simple way for Santas to publish their availability on their websites. This document discusses some of the capabilities and gives an overview of setup. Available here as a web-page if you cannot read the PDF above.
My Santa belt design, inspired by The Santa Clause movies. I have a 3” version and a 4” version, both provided here in a PDF file format. Just print it out and take to your favorite leathersmith. Or, write to my friend Steve at www.BackstreetLeather.com and tell him you want one of Santa Shannon’s belts, he’ll hook you right up.
Tips for a Santa Home Visit – is a list of tips and guidelines given to clients to help them plan a Santa home visit. This is hardly an original work, drawing heavily on a document shared previously by Santa Steve Gillham, but I have certainly added to it with some (what I believe to be) worthwhile considerations.
Camera-Ready, tips for posing as Santa. This is the “mind map” for the presentation I gave at the 2019 Santa Family Reunion. At some point I will flesh this out as an exhaustive outline, or maybe even a full-fledged paper, since I plan on teaching this material again, so keep an eye here.
Santa’s Photography Operations. This is a PDF copy of my presentation from the 2016 Long Leaf Pines' Santas Business Roundtable. I am updating it to include some details that were brought up by questions after. At some point I hope to incorporate information from this older document -->This PDF file is rough outline of an ebook I am writing as I explore the best methods and equipment for doing photography and prints on-site. Even in this rough stage it can serve as a primer to introduce the reader to the topic. From personal experience and research, compiling information from dozens of posts on Santa and Photography forums, and e-mails relating to research and experiences with devices and workflow for photography operations at events and the Santa set. Credit is due to Danny Nease, Tom Myers, and Rick Smith, as they were as much a part of the genesis of this document as I.