Santa Claus is one of the world’s most traditional and unchanging figures.
You know the imagery: ho-ho-hos, red suit, plump belly, big white beard, loves kids no matter what, Rudolph and the gang, elves, North Pole, etc. Santa today is the same jolly old guy we’ve known for generations.
Rich Daberkow is Sun City’s Santa, and he’s changing some of that. But Santa Buck, as he is called, has packed a lot of extra modern-day baggage into his sleigh and become a renaissance Santa of the 21st century. He’s not trying to be a revolutionary or revise history. He’s just reflecting his times. Even without his suit, he’s a classic Santa. Ring his doorbell in N.10 anytime in the yuletide season, and you meet a guy with all the St. Nicholas features: tall, big white beard, twinkles in his eyes, a dazzling smile, and Santa apparel for every occasion.
Rich Daberkow adjusts his glasses for the finishing touches on his Santa suit. (Victoria Diamond/Sun Day Photo)
In addition to his ho-ho-hos, he’s a businessman, marketing specialist, salesman, DVD distribution expert, retired corporate manager, outdoor sportsman, husband, father, and grandfather to his family, and a senior busy enjoying all the benefits and activities of a retirement community. His life is essentially divided into two roles: being a professional Santa, and running a first-run DVD movie vending business throughout the northwest suburban area.
“I worked for a long while, but then I finally realized no one wanted to hire a 75-year-old fat guy anymore,” Daberkow said. “But I wanted to keep busy, so I looked around for something I could do by myself. I knew about the Redbox DVDs outside super¬markets, and I figured I could do that at other places.”
In addition to his Santa gig, Rich Daberkow handles four Redbox DVD machines in the area. (Victoria Diamond/Sun Day Photo)
Daberkow’s story begins in northern Wisconsin, where he was born and spent his first few years. His family moved to Milwaukee, and eventually he enrolled at North Central College in Naperville for a couple of years. He worked more than 20 years at Bell Labs, formerly part of AT&T, as a purchasing manager.
Asked how he got the nickname Buck, he chuckled and said it had nothing to do with Santa Claus.
“My dad was hunting deer at the time I was born, and he got no deer,” he recalled. “So he came home to his new son and decided I was the only ‘buck’ he got that year. The name has stuck with me ever since. Many of my friends now call me ‘Santa Buck,’” he said.
“I believe it was in 1989 that this Santa thing started, Daberkow said. “My wife [Debra] was a volunteer at a homeless shelter near where we lived in Wheaton, and they needed a Santa for a Christmas party. I volunteered and got hooked on it immediately. I later became a mall Santa and quickly got busy every Christmas, making all kinds of appearances. I was the official Santa Claus for the City of Lake Forest for a while and later arrived at Christmas celebrations in Schaumburg and elsewhere in a helicopter in avariety of other ways.
I’ve done Toys for Tots. I was also a Santa for McDonald’s for several years, and I hooked up with almost a dozen other businesses as their official Santa.”
Today, Daberkow mainly works for private photo shoots, charities, and civic group events. He still averages about 25 appearances each Christmas season.
“I have all the funny and sometimes sad stories that every Santa has,” he said. “One kid came up to me once with a Mohair coat and pointed to his dad, who had a matching one. They thought their suits were cooler than mine.”
When Daberkow isn’t working as Santa, he’s driving a lot of miles servicing four current DVD vending machines in Geneva, DeKalb, Kirkland, and Marengo.
“I have $30,000 invested in each machine, and I rent first run DVD movies, vending style,” Daberkow said. “I get them almost a month before Jewel gets them for its stores. I make individual deals with store owners, giving them a percentage of my receipts. I have one in a meat store, another in a convenience store, one in a grocery, and one in a gas station. I’ve done this for more than four years now. I tell the merchants I want to serve their customers by bringing them inside their stores to rent my movies.”
Daberkow would like to put a machine in Prairie Lodge, on a similar basis as the coffee and snack machines recently installed in Fountain View Center.
“That’s a work in progress for me,” he said.
There you have it this Christmas, Sun Citians, a Santa and his reindeer flying over the housetops with a sleigh full of entertainment. It’s Santa Buck.
