With the holiday season in full swing, Jeffrey Hill spends his early weekend mornings in a red fur suit with sleigh bells on his wrist and a dyed-white beard, offering a booming “ho, ho, ho” to crowds of eager children.

Children watch in awe, he said, as their faces brighten and that familiar spark of belief flickers to life. Whether at his Breakfast with Santa bookings — where families pile their plates with pancakes, share wish lists and pose for festive photos — or his appearances at private parties throughout the season, he gets a front-row seat to the wonder.

It’s a role he never expected to play. When a coworker first suggested he dress up as Santa for his new job’s Christmas program, Hill admits he was offended.

“I had just lost a couple pounds,” he said, laughing.

But 10 years later, “Santa Jeff” — who also goes by Kris Kringle and the DMV Santa Claus — has embraced the alter ego with gusto, stacking his end-of-year calendar with back-to-back appearances across the D.C. region.

Most December weekends, and plenty of weeknights, Hill zips himself into his jolly uniform to work holiday parties, community events and Breakfast with Santas. What started as a workplace favor has become a side gig with purpose: a chance to build community among fellow Santa-aficionados and through groups, like the Santas of Color Coalition, to challenge narrow ideas of what Santa is supposed to look like.

For Hill, spreading holiday magic means giving both children and adults in the DMV a Santa who looks and feels like theirs.

“The people that book me trust that I’m going to come through and do exactly what I say I’m going to do,” Hill said. “And so I value the trust they put in me to carry out their vision of what they want Santa to be, to look like and to do.”

After his initial stint as Santa 10 years ago, Hill realized he loved making people happy and putting them in the holiday spirit. That affection pushed him to slowly begin dressing up as Kris Kringle for his family outside of work events, first renting a suit and beard to dress up for his now-10-year-old son and his friends.

Ten Christmastimes in, Hill’s Santa Claus has evolved over the years. He switched six years ago to growing out and dyeing his real beard and four years ago was able expanded his empire to a fully-booked calendar during the Christmas season.

This year, his seasonal bookings started as early as September. He said people hire him off-season too, for events like Christmas in July, and he hopes to begin doing off-season photoshoots in the fall and summer to spread joy yearlong. 

“It was one of the most rewarding things that had happened to me, particularly at that time,” Hill said. “So from that it was I rented a suit and dressed up for my son and some of his friends, and it just grew from there.”

His Santa alter ego has led to custom framing company Framebridge featuring him and his family in their marketing campaign, promoting their portraits with Santa services, using a photo of him as Santa, his son and his wife, who works at the School Without Walls.

Charging $150 an hour with a two-hour minimum, Hill said he gets most of his business through websites like GigSalad, his Instagram and Facebook pages and word of mouth. He said he has regular families whose events he attends and will reach out to them once his calendar starts to fill up to ensure he can fit their events into his busy, wish-granting schedule.

A fifth-generation Washingtonian, Hill said he will be traveling from his home in D.C. to locations as far as Hagerstown, Maryland, this season, mostly for private parties. He said his weekends are “completely booked” for the rest of the year, doing multiple gigs each weekend and others throughout the week after work. 

He said his biggest gig is his upcoming stint at Neiman Marcus in Tyson’s Corner on Dec. 13, a large-scale Breakfast with Santa event, along with participating for the second time in an event called “Santa Looks Just Like Me” in Newport News, Virginia, on Dec. 20, where the organizers bring together Santas of different races and backgrounds.

“Children get to come and take pictures with Black Santa and Asian Santa and all different types of Santas from across the world,” he said. “And I think that is one of the most exciting things just to see.”

A member of the Santas of Color Coalition, Hill said he’s felt some people try to keep Santa in a “traditional box,” since he is often depicted as white. But the organization exists to challenge that norm, giving Santas of color the opportunity to market their services and build community.

He said members expand their Santa pursuits through networking and sharing ideas — including one Santa of color in Tennessee who came up with the idea to rent an Airbnb and sell time slots for Breakfast with Santa, allowing him to work on his own schedule rather than relying on malls or private parties.

He said that, along with the Santas of Color Coalition, groups like the Real Beard Santas of America — dedicated to Santas who don’t use faux beards — also exist to bring jolly performers together. This year, he said he’s planning on attending a retreat in Florida at the end of the season where Santas get together to “decompress” and connect with one another after a hectic season of photo ops and wishlists.

“There will be vendors, they’ll be selling costumes, they’re selling all kinds of belts and things like that,” Hill said. “One of my friends said, ‘It’s an entire situation.’ It’s a whole situation.”

He said people at his job, where he works as a program manager for the D.C. government’s Family and Survivor Support division, often inquire about his gigs — especially when he comes in with his beard dyed white — and ask if his events are public and if they can come with their children. He said family members also get involved with his work, booking him for parties and other events, which gives them the opportunity to see him in a “different light” and spread joy through his love of Santa. 

“I come through, and it is an explosion of joy and laughter and celebration, and so that’s the kind of thing that excites me, and I love to do that,” Hill said. 

Hill said he varies his services depending on what vision people have in mind between reading stories, singing, playing games and dancing. He added that children ask him for a range of presents, but new electronics are usually the “hottest” gifts, though a young child once asked him for an Atari, which caught him off guard due to the antiquity of the console.

He said, along with the fulfillment that comes from seeing children light up at the sight of Santa, he also enjoys witnessing the adults’ reactions. He said he often has to “calm the adults down,” as they seem just as excited to get photographs with him as their children are.

“Like, ‘I promise I’m gonna take pictures with you, ma’am and sir, but this 6-year-old right here,’” he said. “So that’s one of my favorite parts, making sure that I spread joy to everyone.”

Hill noted one of the most memorable moments from his time as Santa came from a young girl asking him to deliver a message to her mother who recently died. He said, despite not being an emotional person, that message always stuck with him.

In terms of Santa naysayers, he said it’s important for people not to “snatch the joy” of believing in Saint Nick from anyone — especially children. However, he said he once got into a debate with a woman about Santa’s skin tone, where she argued that Santa is white. In response, he noted that Santa is not real, poking fun at the traditionalist view of Santa. 

“The important thing is to not take anything personal,” Hill said. “I’m there to provide a service and to spread joy, support visions and make sure people have a good time. That’s what I do. That’s what I take into every gig.”