SEQUIM — The two men say they’re friends, but really they’re arch rivals with their eyes on the priceless prize.
Stephen Rosales, 52, daily volunteer at various charities around Sequim, wants most of all to be “the town Santa.”
“People consider me the town clown already,” he said Friday just before donning a different kind of Christmas suit: that of Frosty the Snowman.
Rosales agreed to be Frosty for the Winter Celebration at the Sequim Community School last Friday, only because another guy got to his preferred position first.
Walt Schubert, 69 — a Sequim City Council member, former mayor and former president of the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce — has portrayed Santa Claus every holiday season for a decade now.
And that’s long enough, Rosales thinks.
“Seniority has its privileges,” he said. “But I would make a better Santa. I outweigh Walt, and I have a better ho-ho-ho.”
Oh, Rosales is just joking when he says things like that, Schubert said. The two men are avid volunteers together at the Sequim Boys & Girls Club and Sequim Food Bank, and Rosales admitted that he loves to tease Schubert.
But when it comes to being Frosty while his friend is Santa, Rosales wants to shake off that snowy outfit.
Frosty scary
“It scares the kids,” he said of the suit highlighted by heavy black rings around the eyes and a pointy carrot nose.
Rosales tries to be a good sport inside that get-up.
“You’ve got to work your way up to the top,” he added.
But when you’re Santa, “you’re a rock star,” Rosales said. “You walk into a room and every kid comes running toward you.”
As Frosty the Snowman, Rosales often has to hold out stuffed toys to get children to come near him.
Some do climb into his pillowy lap but appear unimpressed.
At the Winter Celebration, a few seemed to feel sorry for him: Susannah Sharp, 3, and Abby Sanford, 4, gave him quick hugs.
“Frosty looks like he got in a fight last night,” said Abby’s mother, Carrie Sanford, eyeing the snowman’s black smudges.
Meanwhile, parents and tots formed a long and winding line for Santa, who often travels with a photographer.
The guy doesn’t even have to try, Rosales said.
“He just sits there like a lump of coal . . . it’s time for another, up-and-coming Santa, to take over.”
But Schubert is not. Going. Anywhere.
‘Most fun thing I do’
Being Santa “is the most fun thing I get to do,” he said. “I look forward to it every year.”
Next year, he plans on growing a Claus-worthy beard of his own, starting Sept. 1. He’s already spoken to his barber about it.
Rosales responded quickly to that news.
“I’ll grow a beard, starting in September,” he said. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”
To him, Schubert needs to go out to pasture, “with all the retired reindeer.”
Rosales may be having a little fun here. But Schubert is serious about the issue.
“I thinks the world of Steve,” Schubert said. But if something did cause Rosales to usurp his red suit, “I would miss it.”
To Schubert, Santa means pure generosity and the belief that wishes can come true.
“It’s what life is all about,” he said. “The main thing is to keep the spirit of Christmas.”
He added that he sometimes uses the Santa outfit to impress key ideas on children: If one is asking for a skateboard or a bicycle, for example, he asks for a promise that he or she will wear a helmet.
Meanwhile, the kids, with their mix of innocence and honesty, are still showing him a thing or two.
“There are times when a brother and sister will sit on my lap, and one will say, ‘I don’t need anything, but I’d like you to bring this for my little brother,'” Santa said.
He’s heard many of the same requests for gifts over the years: Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels, a pony.
“A real pony?” he asks.
Oh, yes, was the reply from the child, who after all believes in the power of Santa.
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladaily news.com.
