A Dispatch from a Department Store Elf in Manhattan

By Published on December 5, 2015

Erin Johnson, a 27-year-old, is in her third year as one of Santa’s helpers and goes by Sugarcookie the Elf. She has this gig from Thanksgiving weekend to December 23. The rest of the year she’s an actress. She works at Santaland five days a week, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The other days, she takes acting class and prepares for auditions.

When she’s at work, Johnson makes sure all the elves are rotating through positions—sneaking guest names to Santa, working the cash register, snapping photos of the kids. “You have to talk to the kids in an elf way, and talk to the parents in a not-elf way,” she says. “You can really play up whatever they believe.” When some kids spy Santa, she says, “they’re so starstruck.”

Read the article “A Dispatch from a Department Store Elf in Manhattan” on citylab.com.

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