If you head to Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto this holiday season, you're likely to find a line of people anxiously waiting to take a picture with Santa. Only, you may notice that the line is made up of of more mothers than children. That's because the mall has reimagined the staple Christmas character.
"There was a really cute line I think someone said. 'You go into Legoland, mommy's going to go see Santa," said Paul Mason, the male model behind Fashion Santa.
Mason sports the signature snow-white hair and beard, but that's where the similarities end. Mason is photographed wearing designer clothes, usually involving at least a hint of red, and he's thinner than the Santa Claus you grew up with. And it's not the children coming to the mall to see the 21st century St. Nicholas.
"It's the moms," Mason said.
Mason came up with the idea last year, but he became a viral sensation this holiday season.
Though the long-time model keeps his his beard year-round, he said he reserves wearing red for the month of December alone.
Story and editing by Andrew Fowler
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