Don Gonzales has dressed up as Santa Claus for the past five years and says it brings him joy to make children happy. “I feel in my heart that this is what I was meant to do,” he says.

Gonzales has done many different jobs in his 58 years, but now he focuses on playing Santa Claus.

After every Santa Claus performance, Gonzales boils water to gargle before going to bed.

On busy days, Gonzales, a diabetic, sometimes forgets to take his medicine, including his insulin shots. The next day, to compensate, he takes a double dose.

Gonzales, in his Ewa home, prepares to take his grandchildren, Skyzen and Skyrie, to evening Mass.

During the busy holiday routine, Gonzales misses out on the football games he usually enjoys, but records them to watch later.

Gonzales says it was his long white beard that convinced a portrait studio owner in the Navy Exchange Mall at Pearl Harbor to showcase him as Santa Claus in 2015. For this holiday season, he has been growing out his beard since May.

Gonzales took a break from his Santa duties one December day to play drums with his band at a church show in Pearl City .

At 5.30 p.m., Gonzales starts putting on his Santa outfit back stage at the Christmas light show.

“Maybe when that time comes when I am in my 80s and I am not working anymore and people ask me ‘What did you used to do?’ I will tell them, `I used to be Santa’,” Gonzales says.

Before the pandemic, Santas like Gonzales found plenty of work at private parties, malls and in public photo shoots. The pandemic has brought hard times, and Gonzales was lucky go find a job at Show Aloha Land.

Before the pandemic, to children, “I was real,” Gonzales said. “They could touch me. They could sit on my lap. They could feel me. But now, because of this pandemic, I am like a figment of their imagination, because I am untouchable.”

“Always listen to mommy and daddy. Okay?” Gonzales told children at Show Aloha Land.

Gonzales found refuge from the rain in a tent as he looked out for the last car of the evening.

Gonzales prayed with his only daughter, Shanenalynn, and his band members before evening Mass at a Waianae church. He struggled with drugs and alcohol but is now sober. “I never wanted my children to see me in that shape because I was a totally different person,” he said.

Gonzales, who taught himself to drum and has been playing since he was a teen, says his performances at local churches helped him to recover from his addictions.

Gonzales usually changes his outfit in his car but this time waited to get into a restroom.

Despite the tough times this year, Gonzales says he wants to end his working days as Santa.

Gonzales looks forward to being able to interact with children again as Santa when the pandemic winds down.