The gift of 2 languages

Merry Christmas and Feliz Navidad.

The Santa at Chapel Hills Mall, who is in his third holiday season at the mall, speaks English and Spanish.

That fact isn’t promoted, though Jill Lais, the mall’s marketing director, thinks a sign would be a good idea. Even without a sign, Santa and Spanish-speaking kids often connect.

“I talk to them in Spanish and ask them what they want for Christmas in Spanish and ask them if they’ve been good in Spanish,” Santa said during a break Tuesday. “Always they’ll say yes, they’ve been good.”

The children are appreciative that he can speak to them in Spanish, he said. “The parents are always real surprised.”

The mall didn’t set out to find a bilingual Santa, Lais said.

“We really liked the Santa, we liked the way he looked, and it happened to be like a perk that he is bilingual.”

There is a demand for bilingual Santas, said Billy Gooch, owner of Naturally Santa Inc., a Colorado Springs-based Santa training and placement agency.

“I get calls for them every year,” he said. But of the 79 Santas he placed this season, only three or four are bilingual, he said.

“There are not many bilingual Santas around and there probably is a need,” said J. Paul Raines, Rocky Mountain regional director for the Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas, an international fraternal organization.

Raines is a Santa in Phoenix and has donned the red suit for 35 years. All Santas, he says, should learn to say “Merry Christmas,” “I love you” and “What do you want for Christmas?” in Spanish.

“I speak enough broken Spanish to get by, but I encourage the children to speak English because they are in the U.S. and need to learn the language,” he said via e-mail. “At the same time, I encourage them not to forget their native tongue.”