When you picture Santa Claus, a white, bearded, overweight and jolly man who dashes around delivering gifts to children during the Christmas season probably comes to mind. Yet not everyone who dons the red suit fits this stereotype.

That’s what Assistant Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship Christina Hymer and co-authors Bethany Cockburn and Borbala Csillag learned when they teamed up to study professional Santas. For their study, they looked into how these professional Santas were able to “be” Santa even if they didn’t fully fit the image.
The researchers found that many who do this work don’t see it as just a job but as a calling. Read more at The Conversation.
UT is a member of The Conversation, an independent source for news articles and informed analysis written by the academic community and edited by journalists for the general public. Through this partnership, we seek to provide a better understanding of the important work of our researchers. Read more of our articles published by The Conversation on the UT news site.
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