You probably learned sometime in elementary school that the Santa Claus you believed in wasn't a real person who came sliding down your family's chimney every year. But that doesn't mean "Santa Claus" doesn't exist.
One man in Copiague, NY, on Long Island, has taken it upon himself to become the real thing: Born in Brooklyn as Frank Pascuzzi, he legally changed his name to Santa Claus more than 20 years ago.
Claus, profiled in a video created by Great Big Story, has really committed to becoming a living version of the fictional character. He sports a white beard and white hair, and the license plate on his pickup truck reads "SANTASLA," short for "Santa's sleigh."
"I'm probably on, and I'm not exaggerating, thousands of refrigerators," Claus said in the video. When he's not taking photos with children in his self-designed Santa suit, Claus also owns a barbecue company, fittingly called Santa's BBQ.
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"I want to look like the poem says," Santa Claus explained in the video. "I'm the most-loved person on the planet."
OPENER IMAGE: Wes Abrams/Getty Images.