The "Lancaster's Popular Female Santa" Story

It was an ordinary day.  The year was 1969 and Eileen Bernhardt was donning her Santa Claus suit.  She began her career as Santa at the Manor Shopping Center on the west end of the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  She did so out of desperation, since her husband had been laid off from his welder job and they were in need of funds.  She applied for work at the Manpower Temporary Agency and before long she was told of the need for a Santa at the shopping center.  She really wasn't sure about being Santa, but it would pay the bills.  So, for the next 32 years she began a career as the "Jolly Ole Man in Red."  

Children wait to talk to Santa.  Photo by Hertzler

She listened to Christ- mas wish after Christ- mas wish, jotting down infor- mation about each child on a giant yellow scroll of paper that at times would stretch several hundred feet in length.  Over those 32 years she estimated she held perhaps 100,000 wide-eyed children on her knee.  During those years she was featured in the local newspaper more times than she could remember as well as being featured in "Woman's Day" and "Family Circle."  She appeared on national TV in 1974 when she appeared on "What's My Line" that was hosted by John Daly.  

Eileen Berhardt appeared
on "What's My Line.  

She stumped the panel with her rather unusual vocation.  Then in 1981 she got the bad news that the Manor Shopping Center couldn't afford a Santa anymore.  Well, the calls and mail poured in telling the center they just had to have Eileen back playing Santa.  Newspaper stories were followed by newspaper editorials.  But, it just didn't happen.  That was until a bidding war began for Eileen's services as Santa.  Lancaster's biggest downtown retailer, Watt & Shand, wanted her as did several malls and shopping centers.  She decided to go to the Willow Valley Mall which was near the Willow Valley restaurant and shopping center.  That would be her home for the next 20 years.  Then in 2001 she ran out of yellow paper and had to hang up her red-and-white hat.  Her time as Santa was monumental.  She would shave her eyebrows and meticulously apply individual white hairs to create Santa's brows.  

Santa writing a child's wish on paper.
Photo by Heisey

She would shampoo Santa's beard, which was crafted from wigs, every night.  She became well acquainted with children's toys of the era so she would know what they were talking about when they approached her.  The idea of writing each child's name on her "list" was well accepted by the children who visited with her.  She reported that the giant roll of paper was actually a roll of teletype paper donated by a local radio station.  Some of the money she received as Santa each year was used to buy gifts for needy children who would sit in her lap.  She would get their addresses and surprise them on Christmas Eve with a visit to their homes.  In 1982 she was picked as the Best Santa in Lancaster County by a survey published in the Lancaster Newspaper.  When Eileen retired as Santa in 2001 the newspaper paid tribute to her with a story.  And, Willow Valley hosted a banquet in her honor.  Ellen died on June 18, 2008 at the age of 80.  She had portrayed Santa Claus for 32 years, more than half her adult life.  She was a tireless worker and loved by each and every child that ever sat on her knee.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.