We recently connected with Jerry Czubinski and have shared our conversation below.
Jerry, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
Meaningful Projects / Visits / Events. As Santa Claus you can only imagine the children, the families and stories one has come across during Santa’s Holiday adventures. The most meaningful are the ones for the parents and children who do not have the means or opportunity to visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus. Last Christmas Season as with others before we are asked by friends, family, fellow Military brothers and sisters as well as believers of the spirit of Christmas – ” Who can we donate too” ” What is the Charity you support” ” How can we help you spread your Christmas joy to others” ” Can we sponsor a family visit” ………………..
We never really thought about it and what a great idea…….Have people Sponsor a Santa and Mrs. Claus visit through our Foster Family support group we work with Moses Closet.
For the past few years we volunteer our time with Moses Closet and support their annual Family Day, where they take family photos and then have the opportunity to also talk and take pictures w/ Santa and Mrs. Claus.
This past season we reached out to see if we could look at sponsoring a family………something new for Moses Closet and they reached out to a number of families to see if there was any interest, for Santa and Mrs. Claus to visit and drop off a few toys, Moses Closet focused on the special needs “Heroes” who were unable to leave their homes or a challenge for they to get out and about.
As one would imagine it was well received and we had a number of families that were interested in the Magical Visit from the North Pole. We asked the families put lists together on gifts and any items needed.
Once we had that information we placed a post on our Face Book page and were overwhelmed by the response and support to sponsor these families. Mrs. Claus and the elves were wrapping gifts for a week and getting all the logistics together to make these visits special memories.
The highlight of one of my visits was a little special need boy who used crutches and had this love for life and an amazing infectious smile, that was unable to make it to the Moses Closet Family Day, We did not know that families name and went about our visits and low and behold…………..one of the families we visited is the family that was fostering him, It was like something out of a movie………..I opened the door with the regular Santa Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas and there he was….my little friend…..we made eye contact his awesome and amazing smile started along with yelling “Santa” as soon as I saw him i dropped to my knee and opened my arms as he was running toward me first with his tiny little crutches and then as I said like in the movies …….the crutches fall his arms open and he falls into my arms with the best Christmas hug I have ever had. I call this the spirit and Power of the Red Suit.
Meaningful…….humble and heartfelt.
On a final note…….after this visit while Mrs. Claus and I were In the “Sleigh” heading to the next family, I look over at her with a tear in my eye as so does she and she asks ” How do you do this and not breakdown” I said how can you not…………and I keep the tears in my heart until I get into the Sleigh and shed a few and clean myself up, count my Blessings and get ready for the next family.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
A little about me………..we call this chapter Sailor to Santa. I’m a Navy vet that retired in 08 with 25 years of amazing adventures. One included a tour from 93-98 with the Navy’s Demonstration Team the Blue Angels. That is the Sailor journey and fast forward to 2020 and a fine Houston December Day and a bit of a white beard from “No Shave November” supporting prostate awareness.
My sister called up and asked if I would ” Pretend” to be Santa and call Brooke her granddaughter who was acting up due to having a new brother. Hmmmmmm of course, let me get some info on Brooke, find a Santa hat and a red shirt or something and make a call. Of course I changed all my contact info to and picture to Santa Claus so when I called the contact would show………….Santa Claus. Had a great conversation with Brooke on being a big sister, responsibilities and helping her mom and dad and especially her baby brother. I mentioned that she was on Santa’s “Middle List” and had some time to move up to the Nice list before Christmas Eve.
I called to do a follow up with Brooke the morning of Christmas Eve on how excited Mrs. Claus and I were on what a great big sister she is and that she made the nice list.
We will the power of friends, family and of course social media word got out about the FaceTime Call and from the beginning of December to Christmas Day I was making a number of FaceTime and Zoom calls to families across the nation. All were amazing especially during these trying days of 2020 and Covid.
During the month of December we did a fair amount of research on Professional Santa’s…………groups, training, businesses, etc. Found a local group here in Texas called the Lone Star Santas, joined, asked a ton of questions and actually found a fellow brother Santa that took me under his wings and mentored me during the off season.
Now I needed to find a Name, create a FB page and build a website………………… rolling back to my Navy Days and kicked around a number of names and finally decided to run with ” Blue Angel Santa Claus” this way I could use this in my stories and add in an Aviation part into my character.
If you run through my Face Book page you will be able to see the Many Faces of Santa. Everything from traditional to Santa in a flight Suit at the flight museum to Summer Santa to Santa as a Ghostbuster ……….yes Santa as a Ghostbuster……….someone needs to help them catch Krampus during the Christmas Season.
Special this we bring to the wonderful world of Claus is we have turned our Game Room into Santa’s Office where we can host photographers, families as well as make our FaceTime and Zoom Calls from the North Pole.
I have a number of props I take with with including a full size Rudolph Harness and collar as well a “Special” Reindeer Shoes that are used only on Christmas Eve.
I leave a shoe with some of the children on visits or meeting them around town. These special shoes need to be placed next to the place of cookies and milk and if one of the reindeer throws a shoe I can use your to get back to the Christmas eve mission.
No evet to small or to large for Santa and Mrs. Claus to handle. 
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Building a Santa Brand………… Definitely thinking out of the igloo. Being Creative and not the standard Santa Claus. Offering stories and items that have not been thought of before like the Reindeer Shoes that are only used during Santa’s Christmas Eve Flight. These Reindeer shoes have a special tag from the Red Nosed Forge and include a “Remove Before Flight” Tag. We even offer Flown used shoes that include a Naval Aviation focused SCRAP Tag an ” A” sheet that is used within the Navy to release the Aircraft for flight all signed by Elves and Santa Claus. One of a Kind unique items the build on Santa’s stories and used for our visits.
We also have Aged Blueprints of the Reindeer shoe designs, did a photo shoot at a local forge last month to build on this story of making the shoes working with my local Texas Blacksmith.
We even just came out with a number of other items including sports cards with flown material Santa wore on Christmas Eve as well as during a number of Test Flights in his Sleigh. Of Course these also have a Blueprint of Santa Sleigh on aged paper.
This builds an audience that is intrigued on the day to day of Santa and that he is “Real” I use a lot of these ideas, props in my day to day as I might get caught shopping at Ace Hardware or stopping in McDonalds.
It’s all a part of the Blessing of being Santa Claus and the Power of the Red Suit. You have to keep your audience involved and interested daily. Find that balance to keep them coming back to see …………Wow better check to see what Santa’s up to. Even if it March. You also do not want to “Fire Hose” them with daily drivel, no politics, personnel opinions…….just pure Santa Magic and Belief in the Spirit of Christmas all year.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
The Goal is make positive changes, bring a bit of Christmas hope and magic throughout the year. Put a smile on someone’s face, send a little care package from the North Pole to someone, give them a ‘Pick me up” call to help them through the day, call on someone’s Birthday., or to congratulate them.
I actually have a Stunt Birthday CupCake in my fridge for such occasions.
It takes me 10-15 minutes to get ready make a FactTime or Zoom call that will make that persons day, week or month, and it cost me nothing to spread a bit joy from the North Pole.
The joy, smiles and beautiful texts, IM’s and one on one talks keeps this journey alive. 
Contact Info:
- Website: https://blueangelsantaclaus.godaddysites.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blueangelsantaclaus5/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blueangelsantaclaus/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerryczubinski/
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083464771853
Image Credits
Brooke Stanley Photography Tammy Zweifel Photography Cristie Reddenhase – Silver Images Photography Vanessa Rachel Photography Penny Angel Photography Ashley Forstmann Photography