Ron Cooper

From award-winning photographer Ron Cooper comes a beautifully curated photo book of fifty professional Santas from all across the country, giving readers an intimate and joyous glimpse into the lives of those who love performing as Santa Claus each year. Each portrait features Santa both before and after, so Christmas lovers will see each Santa come gloriously to life. The book will also delight readers with inspirational Santa profiles and includes extra holiday cheer with behind-the-scenes stories and side bars of what makes Santa great--from the indefatigable support of Mrs. Claus to the specialized training each Santa goes through to be the best that they can be.

Portraits and Profiles

We Are Santa

Briar's Reviews

We Are Santa: Portraits and Profiles is an excellent collection of the bios of different Santas. 

This photography collection with small biographies and interests of different Santas is super cool. It was a great way to help get into the Christmas spirit and read about how people got into the job of playing Santa (in his place, of course. He can't be everywhere!). It was one amazing collection and such a unique one. It's something I haven't seen before, so I am completely impressed.

Four out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Princeton Architectural Press for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

Erin 

It's August, 2020 sucks, what the heck, I'm gonna read a book about Santa Claus. This book is so cheery. I knew that being "Santa" was a legitimate professional thing that some people do, and even that there were schools to become a better performer. We Are Santa features 50 profiles of men (and one woman!) who do the Santa gig professionally, and there's so much joy in all of their photos. The author kept repeating that there is no other figure in the world like Santa Claus that brings the same mixture of happiness, warmth, joy, safety, and glee than the man himself, and I would have to agree. There is clear passion for the job among all the individuals featured. They do all look the same, but they're also uniquely different. Some have been doing it for literal decades, some for only a few years. I was surprised at the age range featured as well. Certainly there were some older men, but a lot of younger men who just happened to grow a white beard early in life as well. The youngest Santa featured in the book started when he was just seven, and is still under 20 years old. Hey, if you have the passion, go for it! Each Santa profile consists of two photos, one out of costume and one in costume. We also get to learn where the Santas come from, and what their (non-Santa) profession is. It was interesting to notice that a lot of the Santas came from the same professions such as carpenter (an obvious one) or US military (all the Santas featured are American), and now I'm wondering if there is something inherently joyful and bumbling in being a sales representative. While it still may be summer, this book certainly brought some Christmas joy into my life, if only for a little while. It's a fun little book to flip through if you want to be reminded of some of the good things in the world.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

We Are Santa Portraits and Profiles

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