The strange and lucrative life of a professional Santa Claus

Gilles Brière has been filling out his schedule at the end of every year for the past two and a half decades, and has built quite the resume for it. The work is good: He hasn’t had to file job applications, and he’s been getting phone calls on a regular basis from agencies looking to hire you. He’s a hot commodity come Christmas time when he plays the man in red: Jolly ol’ Saint Nick. 

Brière is a semi-professional actor, known for his (mostly) white beard and snowy hair. The 65 year-old South Shore resident has a very clear, deep voice that’s wise and soothing, but he’s something of a chameleon as well. If you closed your eyes, you could hear it booming from a grandfatherly role on the silver screen, like a wizard in an SAAQ commercial. But he’s got range as well, having played a man who lost his home to eviction in an Old Brewery Mission campaign video.