Thor Highland has made a lifetime hobby of bringing joy to local kids.

He has played Santa Claus for various organizations in towns such as Nevada, Huxley and McCallsburg for 42 years. This is his seventh year at North Grand Mall, 2801 Grand Ave.

Highland said he stumbled upon the role when a friend called for a favor.

“My friend was playing Santa in Nevada, and he wanted to play a trick on the family, so he asked me to play Santa with him,” Highland said. “I’ve been hooked ever since.”

The Grot Imaging Studio, the company that takes professional pictures of children with Santa at the mall, hired Highland for the gig.

“I saw an ad in the paper,” Highland said. “So I went to Grot. He said, ‘You’re just the guy I’m looking for.’”

That may partially be because Highland has a full, natural Santa’s beard.

Highland began his role as Santa on Nov. 20.

As of Dec. 10, he has been on duty every day from noon until 8 p.m. — those hours last until Christmas.

Besides playing Santa, Highland works at the Department of Transportation office.

He uses three hours of vacation time each day to “come out here and enjoy the Christmas atmosphere.”

Many Santas are requesting that they be considered a priority group for receiving the H1N1 vaccine, according to an article on CNN.com.

They don’t want to contract the illness themselves, but more importantly, they don’t want to ruin innocent children’s Christmas by passing the virus on to them.

However, according to the Centers for Disease Control Web site, priority groups mainly include “people at risk for developing flu-related complications.”

They do not consider mall Santas to be in that group, although many are over the age of 65, which would qualify them as a priority group.

Highland, however, is not worried about contracting the H1N1 virus.

He did receive the vaccination, but he just doesn’t think about illness because for 42 years he has not caught a severe illness from the thousands of children he’s seen.

“I am losing my voice right now, but that’s from being outside feeding the reindeer,” Highland said.

While Highland loves his role as Santa, he said it gets difficult when he gets unusual gift requests from kids.

“This year, a boy asked for a boy American Girl doll,” Highland said.

When he gets outlandish requests, “I tell them I’ll try,” he said. “But it gets hard when an 8-year-old boy asks for a Maserati.”

He says it’s hardest when kids “pull at the heart strings.”

“One kid last year wanted his dad home from Iraq for Christmas,” Highland said. “Someone else said he just wanted his parents to have a good Christmas.”

According to Highland, requests like those are the hardest part of being Santa.