Santa Claus Off Duty

Wonderlens Studio proudly presents this year’s first custom-made Christmas portrait for our clients: “Santa Claus Off Duty”

“Santa Claus Off Duty” is a portrait of love that has survived both time and fire. In the photograph, Vance and Judy stand in a quiet, tender embrace before their burgundy Chevrolet Camaro SS, bathed in soft golden moonlight along the California coast, watched over by their curious little white dog.

For more than fifty years, Vance and Judy built a life full of ritual and devotion. One of those rituals was Vance’s annual role as his community’s Santa Claus, a tradition he began at eighteen. Each December, he drove this very Camaro through Southern California, delivering gifts to children who looked forward to the man in red.

But in early 2025, the Eaton Fire swept through their Los Angeles neighborhood and reduced nearly everything they owned to ashes. Their home—the place where decades of memories had lived—disappeared overnight. In the days that followed, Vance and Judy stood in the ruins of their life, holding each other in the very same posture seen in this photograph. That embrace was their way of saying goodbye to the past, acknowledging the enormity of their loss while drawing strength from the one thing the fire could not consume: their bond.

The Camaro, parked away from home on the day of the fire, survived by chance. It became more than a car—it became a reminder that not everything was lost. This Christmas is their first after the fire.

The photograph was created not only to honor the season but to capture their rise from grief. Where they once stood among ashes, they now stand in moonlight—still holding each other, but sweeter, steadier, and with a quiet hope for the future. By placing Santa’s coat on the car instead of on Vance, the image gently asks: When Santa is off duty, who is he? And the answer is profoundly simple—he is a man who has loved and endured, and she is the woman who has stood beside him through every heartbreak and every miracle.

Set against the warm Pacific coastline rather than snow, “Santa Claus Off Duty” becomes a story not only of Christmas but of resilience, remembrance, and the courage to begin again.