Friday Wall Street Journal http://tinyurl.com/vg74a
"There's all this forced cheer at Christmastime that we're all so sick of, so it makes sense that there's a rebellion," says Maud Lavin, editor of "The Business of Holidays" and professor of visual and critical arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. For Ms. Lavin, the idea of a Bad Santa evokes photos of children sitting on a mall employee's lap and crying hysterically in fear. "Of all the things that were forced on us during the holidays, he's the one that could actually be scary." Mo Donahue, owner of Party Crashers Entertainment in Minneapolis, got the inspiration five years ago, when, in desperation, she hired an unfamiliar actor for a holiday party. He showed up in a sulky, unprofessional mood, and guests complained afterward that he wouldn't even say "ho, ho, ho." "They kept referring to him as this surly Santa," Ms. Donahue says. "And I thought, 'That could be a really funny idea.'" In 2002, Ms. Donahue began offering a Bad Santa for singing telegrams and party visits. It was slow to catch on the first year, she says, but since then about one-third of her Santa bookings each holiday season have been deliberately cranky characters. Her Bad Santa, whose services start at $110 for 15 minutes, sings Christmas carols with unprintable lyrics, breaks down in tears or perhaps throws gifts across the room. Clients decide ahead of time how shocking they want his behavior to be. The company also offers a "trophy bride" Mrs. Claus in a fur-trimmed red minidress and a blond wig. "It has to be the right crowd," says Ms. Donahue.
