Joe 'Santa Jeaux' Pridgen, Instructor

Santa Jeaux first appeared as Santa in the mid 1970s at the annual Christmas party for his church and he continued those appearances until 2009. His first paid performances were in December of 1999, and he began his career as a full-time real-bearded Santa in 2011. 

In continuing to study the many faceted art of Santa performance, he holds course completion certificates from several local and national Santa schools, and has earned a PhD degree from the International University of Santa Claus.  Santa Jeaux is a member of IBRBS, the RBSNGA, the Georgia Metro Santas, and Peachtree Santas of Georgia, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation helping to provide resources and service for children's activities.

Santa Jeaux also attends workshops in other performance skills and is currently pursuing the art of story-telling. For many years he appeared in community theater productions in the Atlanta area, including touring in the southeast for one of his roles.

Teaching is his passion and he gained practical experience while serving for 8 years as a scoutmaster in the Boy Scouts of America, and 14 years as a volunteer head coach for middle school football. His teaching experience also includes 4 years as a pastor in his church, many years as a choir director and over 12 years as a Sunday School teacher.

He has portrayed Santa at many venues, notably as the Santa for the Global Winter Wonderland at Turner Field in Atlanta for its 2013 season. In addition to performing, he specializes with photo work where he works with as many as 10 different studios in the months of October and November. His Decembers are full of family, corporate and municipal appearances, but his favorite is appearing every Christmas morning at the Egleston Children's Hospital for several hours visiting with children who couldn't be home for Christmas.