Our story

The Real Deal Santa Claus was founded in 2021 by Santa Bart (aka Snowman), a Columbus, Ohio native. Bart began working with a client doing local food deliveries to various homeless shelters, and in the process began talking with shelter residents each day.

About the same time, Bart happened to grow a beard, and people began to tell him he looked like Santa. He decided it was better to be Santa than just look like him. His goal was to raise awareness of this underserved and tragic situation — and he began to find his calling right before his own eyes.

Bart took on his first ever toy drive, which resulted in over 400 gifts donated to the very children at the shelters he visited daily. One could say these children get to catch a glimpse of Santa all year round. And so, the Real Deal Santa Claus came to be.

Everyone can be and should be the Real Deal Santa Claus to these kids.

They need the encouragement to reach any dream they can imagine — to know they are not a hand-me-down kid with a secondhand toy, but that they have a purpose and are equal to any other kid. They deserve a new toy!