Husband-wife duo spread cheer as Santa and his Good Elf
On Dec. 11, Vegas Santa showed up at a bar and really went to the dogs.
“Actually, I don’t know why I’m here,” he said. “I was asked to show up, and where Santa’s asked, Santa goes.”
It was his Good Elf who filled in the details.
“Our friend (Cathy Brooks) is the owner of the Hydrant Club,” said the Good Elf, more commonly known as Kathleen Kahr D’Esposito. “She wants to do photos of dogs with Santa.”
Local event photography firm the Wooden Camera shot photos of Santa at the event, which took place at the Bunkhouse Saloon, 124 S. 11th St. There was no big chair, so Vegas Santa posed for pictures with dogs and their owners in the back of an old pickup truck.
It was just a sliver of Vegas Santa’s busy holiday season, which included a Christmas at Huntridge Circle Park, 1251 S. Maryland Parkway, a visit to a holiday party called Twisted Vegas at a private home, Doggie Date Night at the the Downtown Container Park, 707 Fremont St., and the Santa Rampage, a holiday-themed downtown bar crawl.
Despite his unusual social calendar, Vegas Santa is a traditionalist in many ways, claiming that he’s been on the job for 2,014 years and that he charges up with cookies and milk. He’s also very traditional in his love of children.
“One time, we were heading to some event that we were already late for, and we passed a little kid who said, ‘Santa!,’ and the clock went right out the window, and we stopped,” Kahr D’Esposito said. “He said, ‘You can’t rush Santa, you know. I can’t just rush past a kid.’ That’s the way it is for him.”
Kahr D’Esposito said Vegas Santa bears a passing resemblance to her husband, Greg D’Esposito, who taught first- through eighth-grade humanities for the Clark County School District for 30 years and is now retired. She said he has always had the beard, so Santa was a good fit for him. She organized Christmas at Huntridge Circle Park four years ago and said the neighborhood kids have come to expect it and look forward to it.
“He’s the only Santa a lot of the neighborhood kids know,” Kahr D’Esposito said. “He never rushes. He has a great little rap session with every kid. It isn’t one of those take-the-picture-now-get-out-of-here things.”
Kahr D’Esposito and her husband have lived in the Huntridge area since 1991 and are involved in and organize many social events, including neighborhood croquet games and Blinking Man, an event featuring bicycles tricked out with lights driving en masse around downtown at night. She’s fond of all of them, but the events with Vegas Santa are particularly special for her.
“The spirit of Santa is in everybody,” she said. “When you do nice things and when you take the time to be in the present, that’s the Santa in you.”
Although Vegas Santa has been known to make a summer appearance or two, his busy season is pretty much done by Christmas Day, and the neighborhood isn’t likely to see him again until the weather cools again the following year.
“Yep, I’ve got nothing going on after Christmas,” Vegas Santa said. “Unless people want to invite me over for leftover cookies or eggnog, I’ve got nothing public going on.”
Contact East Valley View reporter F. Andrew Taylor at ataylor@viewnews.com or 702-380-4532.
