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60-year-old Eric Schmitt-Matzen was made to play the role of Santa Claus. The man is six feet tall and 310 pounds. He’s grown his beard out to look exactly like Santa’s full-style beard and even has the mustache to boot.
He received professional Santa training, bought a custom-tailored red suit, and even wears gold-rimmed glasses and suspenders as part of his “civilian wear.”
Schmitt-Matzen said he initially got into the business of playing Santa because he thought it would help “spready joy” and give him a way to “have fun” during the holiday season.
He never realized that this job would also cause him the most heartache he’d ever experienced.
This past weekend, Schmitt-Matzen got a call from a friend who worked as a nurse at the local hospital. She explained to him that there was an extremely ill five-year-old boy who wanted nothing more than to see Santa Claus.
It was an offer Schmitt-Matzen couldn’t turn down. He replied that he would just need a moment to put on his Santa suit, but the nurse interrupted, “There isn’t time for that. Your Santa suspenders are good enough. Come right now.”
Schmitt-Matzen made it to the hospital in 15 minutes. There, he met the boy’s family and learned the full situation.
This little boy was dying and was terribly afraid that he’d miss Christmas. His family was desperate to give the boy his dying wish.
Schmitt-Matzen immediately told the family, “If you think you’re going to lose it, please leave the room. If I see you crying, I’ll break down and can’t do my job.”
He ended up going into the room alone. The rest of the family stayed outside, unable to keep themselves from sobbing.
By the time Schmitt-Matzen entered the room, it was clear the little boy barely had any energy left in him. “He was so weak he could barely open the wrapping paper [of his gift],” Schmitt-Matzen recalled through tears.
He ended up helping the boy open the gift – a toy that the boy had wanted for a long time – and did his best to reassure the child that as long as he told “’em [he’s] Santa’s Number One elf…they’ll let [him] in [to Heaven].”
Moments later, just as the boy asked, “Santa, can you help me?” he passed away in Schmitt-Matzen’s arms.
Everyone outside screamed and rushed into the room. Schmitt-Matzen, on the other hand, passed over the child and ran out of the room to sob. “I spent four years in the Army with the 75th Rangers, and I’ve seen my share of (stuff),” he admitted. “But I ran by the nurses’ station bawling my head off. I know nurses and doctors see things like that every day, but I don’t know how they can take it.”
After this, Schmitt-Matzen confessed that he wasn’t sure if he would ever be able to play as Santa ever again. But he did so simply because he had one more show booked. It was then that he realized as he watched all the children playing that he just had to play this role “for them and for me.”
