John Dickson’s business has nothing to do with Christmas or Santa Claus. He runs a website promoting Santa Barbara attractions and he can be reached at 1-800-SANTABARBARA (1-800-726-8222), which however varies one digit from 1-800-SANTACLAUS (1-800-726-8225). So, this made for John Dickson become one of Santa’s helpers by mistake: children were misdialing real Santa Claus’ phone number and were in fact calling Dickson in Santa Barbara.

However, this year the businessman decided to prepare for the flood of calls and with the help of 100 volunteers became Santa’s official helper. The 44-year-old man explained that “Doing this is more important than my job,” because “Santa Claus is really a big deal – a gigantic deal – for these children.”

So, John Dickson transformed himself from the so-called “Accidental Santa” into real Santa Claus’ official helper. His phone line was open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., though on Monday it ran only until 5 p.m.

“It’s all second nature,” said Dickson about working as Santa’s helper.