Performing during the holiday season

Walking around in a costume through a shopping center gives you a really unique perspective on how people view and interact with the world. I just completed my contract as a Merry Maker with RWS and Associates at Westfield Brandon Center. It has been fascinating to see people's reaction to us spreading the cheer of the holidays.

Our basic function as Merry Makers is to perform in two different shows and spread merriment and cheer through random acts of kindness. It a very fun job and since Christmas is one of my favorite times of year, this is an ideal job for me during the holiday season. Not only do I get to perform, it's my job to spread the holiday spirit through giveaways, story times, Elf-ercise, mistletoe stick and a caroling. It is a blast and the cast I am working with is a joy to be around.

Throughout the season, there are have been thousands of different interactions with the shoppers at the mall. I have probably said "Happy Holidays" 348, 296 times in the past four weeks and everyone one of those has had a recipient on the other end responding in some way.

There are four main ways people interact with us:

1. Avoidance

2. Polite acceptance

3. All-in loving it

4. Rude comments (these were rare)

Oh! And people hitting on us. How could I forget the fun that was (eye roll)?

The first is a result of shyness, people on a mission to accomplish things, and not wanting to be sold anything. As someone who very much identifies with the last two, I completely get it. And I respect people who react this way to our slightly over the top personalities and happiness, because they know that for whatever the reason, they do not want to interact with us. And I would never want to make someone uncomfortable. But at the same time, would it kill you to say, "Happy Holidays" back?

A little shout out to the BEST vendors in the mall! They gave us a home to perform our show and were abundantly kind and our biggest fans. Thanks to Curtis, Alexis, Josh, Jay and Eric!

Most people fall into the second type of interacting which is a polite acceptance of whatever we are doing, whether that is a watching our show, "Joy: The Gift of Christmas" or accepting a free chocolate or smiling back at us when we compliment their festive sweater. These are great and make up the bulk of the interactions through out the day.

We handed out hundreds of chocolates, coffee mugs, bottles of water, tote bags and reindeer ears. It was a fun way to bring a little sunshine to someone's day as they did their holiday shopping.

My favorite interaction is the full-in loving what we are doing as Merry Makers. They will join in caroling with us, dance along, ask for pictures with us and just smile from ear to ear. This is the best kind of customer to interact with all day and they give us that extra pep in our step to go out and do it all over again. Most of the people that fell into this category were kids and their parents.

A lot of what we did as Merry Makers is geared towards children, so it makes sense that they would enjoy us. The best interaction was a little 3 year old boy named Ezra who was so overcome with infatuation that he continually hugged me and planted a big 'ole kiss on my cheek after we finished a show. Poor guy got a face full of sweat, but he didn't seem to mind one bit.

And let me take this moment to brag on my amazing cast: Ryan Caudill, Steve Austin and Sarah Katherine. We all got along so well and made quite an amazing group as we dealt with all the different types of interactions we encountered in our four weeks together. I wouldn't mind one bit if we all did this again next year together. I couldn't have asked for a better team to spend the holiday performing with and spreading cheer.

This was a wonderful experience overall, but I am truly glad to be home with my family now that my contract is complete and just rest in the familial love!


p.s. Did you know I have a separate website for my acting? Check it out!