ASMA KHALID, HOST:
Folks, y'all know there's really only one Santa Claus.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Ho, ho, ho. Merry Christmas.
KHALID: But some people like to dress up like Santa.
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NATALIE WOOD: (As Susan) Your beard doesn't have one of those things that goes over your ears.
EDMUND GWENN: (As Santa) Well, that's because it's real, just like I'm really Santa Claus.
KHALID: That's, of course, from the classic movie "Miracle On 34th Street." We talked to someone who can answer any and all questions you may have about your Kris Kringle outfit.
DOUG EBERHART: We want Santa to look majestic, elegant and exquisite.
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EBERHART: My name is Doug Eberhart, and I'm in Charlotte, North Carolina. I run prosanta.com. My customers are anyone portraying Santa Claus or Mrs. Claus to the public. Most of the suits that I've seen look like someone ran over you with a steam roller, and you're completely flat. I want to be known as kind of the Liberace of Santas. I want people to say, oh, my gosh, look at that outfit. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
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EBERHART: I've got some suits that have some beautiful arctic fox collars, and they're just luscious. And then we pair that with full rabbit around the cuffs, and then we'll put some beautiful braid or trim. Most of my suits are anywhere from about $2,000 to $3,000. That includes the hat, the pants and the coat.
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EBERHART: I'm a full-time medical sales rep for a company out of Salt Lake City. I've been doing Santa since I was 14 years old. My mom made my first Santa suit out of a pajama pattern for a young man. It was horrible, cheesy. But my mom made it, and I still have the original suit in my other office.
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EBERHART: We not only do the Santa suits, I also offer two schools called prosanta.school. We practice everything from singing to ho-ho-hos. Like, you know, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho. I've heard a lot of different ho-ho-hos that don't sound very authentic. And we spend time on learning how big should my boots be? How much play should I have in my suit? Do I need a toy bag? Do I need bells? What kind of bells? Do I have steel bells? Do I have solid brass bells? Very minute details that the average person would never have any clue goes on.
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EBERHART: There's nothing better for me to have Santas call me up and say, you know what? I just got this extra event because they saw a suit that was different than everybody else's. I want people to be the best they can be.
KHALID: That's Douglas Eberhart of prosanta.com.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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