Photograph by Robert Scheer
Saratogans Don and Fran Miller really become Father and Mother Christmas.
By Michelle Gabriel
Who is big and jolly, has a beard, wears a red outfit trimmed with white and lives in Saratoga? Aha! Bet you thought this was about Santa Claus. Of course, everyone knows Santa lives at the North Pole, so that couldn't be the answer. However, Saratoga is home to another Christmas celebrity who fits that description to a T, Father Christmas.
Actually, Father Christmas, a.k.a. Don Miller, and his wife Fran, have been providing Saratoga with its holiday fantasy for years.
Longtime Saratoga residents, the Millers have frequently appeared as Father and Mother Christmas, as well as other costumed characters, for Saratoga Rotary functions, the annual Saratoga Village Open House, Saratoga Historical Museum, Mirassou Winery dinners, Montalvo's Yuletide and Saratoga Senior Center events.
It's great fun, says Miller who describes their role as "meeters and greeters facilitating the flow of activities."
While he has also, on occasion, appeared as Santa Claus, Miller prefers his alter ego Father Christmas. "Santa Claus is very commercial," Miller says. "He is on just about every street corner and in every department store." Besides, he adds, adults seem to relate better to Father Christmas than they do to Santa Claus. Adults don't feel shy sitting on Don's lap when he's Father Christmas, but they do seem a bit uncomfortable sitting on Santa's lap.
In fact, with his naturally long beard (he keeps it trimmed until August, then lets it grow for the Christmas season), and red flowing robe trimmed in white, Miller says he sometimes feels more like Father Christmas than Don Miller. "There have been occasions when people relate so well to me as Father Christmas that I begin to wonder who the real me is," he says.
The real Don Miller is as giving of himself as Father Christmas. A retired senior management consultant, Miller is a past president of the Society for Advancement of Management, a fellow in that society and the 1983 recipient of its Human Relations Award. He has received the Distinguished Service Award from the Continuing Professional Development Division of the American Society for Engineering Education. Locally, he is a member of Saratoga Rotary and was Saratoga Rotary Art Show chairman in 1989 and 1991. He is also past president of the Hakone Foundation Board of Trustees, past president of the Saratoga Sister City organization, and he was named 1988 Saratoga Citizen of the Year by the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce.
His transformation into Father Christmas began in the early 1980s through both his and Fran's association with Valley Institute of Theater Arts (VITA). The Millers had suggested offering photo opportunities for the audience by having a figure dressed as Father Christmas come out on stage at the end of the play. VITA was doing a Christmas production set in the Dickens' era, and the timing was perfect for this to take place, says Fran.
So was the effect. People related so well to Father Christmas that Miller continued his portrayal, eventually expanding his repertoire outside VITA, to include such illustrious figures as Paul Masson, Senator James D. Phelan and even Leonardo Di Vinci for an Oak Street School project.
Fran's Mother Christmas portrayal evolved some time after Father Christmas. She designs and makes the elaborate costumes she and Don wear. According to Fran, Mother Christmas was not originally mentioned in earlier literature, where the only reference was to Father Christmas and sons. "Of course, there had to have been a Mother Christmas, so we went ahead and created her," Fran says.
Fran gets into the role by carrying herself with the regal elegance she describes as befitting Mother Christmas. "Mrs. Claus is a plump, apron-wearing, cookie-baking, good-natured woman," explains Fran, "while Mother Christmas has a more sophisticated look. Mrs. Claus wears an apron and makes cookies; Mother Christmas parties and drinks champagne!"
All in all, the Millers have a repertoire of characters complete with 35 authentic period costumes, including real top hats as part of a large hat collection, pince-nez glasses which are part of an extensive eyeglass collection, and a vast mask collection obtained from all over the world.
As comfortable as they are in assuming the identity of each of the characters they have created, Father Christmas remains their favorite.
"The image of Father Christmas is over 500 years old," Miller says, "whereas the American Santa Claus, as most people know him, dates back only a couple of hundred years to the arrival of Dutch settlers and their Christmas figure, Sinter Klaus."
The Millers, who research every detail and nuance of their characters for authenticity and accuracy, explain that Father Christmas is quite different from the jolly old elf people know as Santa Claus.
"Father Christmas is descended from several pagan predecessors, including the Druids, and became popular during the English Reformation period," Don says.
"The Ghost of Christmas Past in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is most likely a representation of Father Christmas. He is generally portrayed as a giant who wears holly and ivy, and never a hat, always a wreath," says Miller. "In English tradition, Father Christmas presided over the Christmas feast, managed the actors and singers on stage and generally played the role of master of ceremonies."
That describes Miller's 20th-century version of Father Christmas, as well. In addition to costumed appearances at local and nonprofit organizations, Miller and his wife established Fantasy Fare, a theme-event design and development business they run from their home. Working with corporate coordinators, party planners and individuals, the Millers offer custom calligraphy and murals, musicians, and a variety of characters such as Renaissance people, Merlin the Magician and a St. Patrick's leprechaun. Managing actors and singers as well as playing master of ceremonies at events, they provide the ambiance for ethnic atmosphere and authentic historical periods.
All this showmanship comes naturally to the Millers, whose interest in theater and drama dates back to their youth. Born and raised in Rochester, NY, Don participated in many of his high school and college theater productions. His wife, a California native, has played the violin since the age of 4 and remembers being in theater productions since grammar school.
What they enjoy the most, say the Millers, is seeing how children and adults react to their costumed characters. "Occasionally, younger children might be a little apprehensive of Father Christmas at first, since he's a little different-looking than what they are used to seeing in Santa Claus," says Fran. "But Don charms them, and after a while they are very comfortable with him."
Children especially will ask all kinds of questions. The most frequently asked: Is the beard real? "Go ahead, check it out," Miller will reply good-naturedly. "Youngsters are wide-eyed when they pull it and discover it is real."
When asked if he is Santa Claus, he replies with a familiar twinkle, "No, Santa Claus is my grandson!"
"This is what we call our psychic income," says Miller philosophically. "We don't make much money out of this, but we sure have a lot of fun with it."
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, December 25, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved