What’s Happening: Demand for mall Santas has skyrocketed in a post-pandemic push toward normalcy, but a talent shortage is threatening to dampen the holiday spirit.

The Download: Record inflation and supply chain woes snagged just about every industry this year, and even Santa is feeling the heat up at the North Pole. According to Planet Money, the services of Jolly Ol’ Saint Nick were in higher demand than ever this month as malls and retailers booked Santa for the entire season in a push toward normalcy.

But there simply aren’t enough Santas to ho-ho-hold down the fort. Mitch Allen, the self-described “Head Elf” of HireSanta, a staffing agency for holiday entertainers, noticed his company saw a 125 percent increase in demand compared to pre-pandemic seasons. For every new Santa who signs up, he has 20 clients clamoring for a visit from Kris Kringle.

Those numbers spell trouble considering the pandemic was particularly hard on the Santa Claus community. Stephen Arnold, a professional Santa and leader of the International Brotherhood of Real-Bearded Santas (IBRBS), which offers background checks and liability insurance to holiday entertainers, said membership plummeted from around 2,000 to 1,400 during the pandemic. “You gotta remember: We’re all a little plump,” he tells NPR. “Most of us are over the age of 60. We’re probably in many cases diabetic. We had a much higher incidence of death. So, yes, a lot of people backed away and decided not to perform.”

Some performers have opted for Zoom calls while others insist on appearing in person. But taking too many precautionary measures, like appearing behind protective snow globes or walls of plexiglass, often forges a less-than-festive mood. Many simply declined to reprise their role, creating such a serious shortage that one Pennsylvania lawmaker proposed a “tax credit for those hiring Santas or Santas working on their own.” He didn’t succeed, but incentives do exist. Basic economics suggests that Santa can simply raise his prices to address demand. (Have we reached the point of Santa surge pricing?) Depending on how much one can work, some professionals earn up to $12,000 per holiday season.

Addressing the shortage isn’t entirely frictionless. Many of HireSanta’s clients demand real-bearded performers, but growing a full-blown Santa beard can take upwards of a year. (For what it’s worth, IBRBS has started allowing faux-bearded Santas into the mix, as well as more diverse and thinner applicants.) They also need to learn how to maintain a jolly mood and respond joyfully to zany questions from youngsters who may have landed on the naughty list. Cue the International University of Santa Claus, somewhat of a Christmas-themed charm school that has presented nearly 4,800 diplomas to aspiring performers.

In Their Own Words: “We’ve been working very hard to replenish the number of Santas,” Allen says. “I’ve traveled the country this last year going to Santa schools, speaking at conventions, and really trying to connect with the community to let them know the advantages of being a professional Santa.”

Surface Says: We know one who might be available for those who are desperate.

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The historic Balearic Island is showing off a modern edge with the arrival of a clean-lined beach retreat, renovated 17th-century mansion teeming with contemporary art, a Scandi-style design darling in Palma, and more. The more demure, older sister to the party mecca that is Ibiza, Mallorca has always had a bit of an identity crisis (there is a Nikki Beach after all), but the largest of the Balearic Islands has a surprisingly dynamic personality for every taste.

Within just 1,400 square miles, a new crop of boutique hotels is bringing the island’s micro personalities to life, whether it be in the historic capital Palma, with its cobblestoned alleyways that echo the voices of local youth who’ve enjoyed one too many glasses of Callet, the bucolic orchard-filled countryside, or one of the many cliffside resort towns along the coast to the north.

As this turbulent year draws to a close, we take a moment to remember the creative forces we lost—and make sure their legacies aren’t forgotten.

Manfred Thierry Mugler, one of fashion’s most beloved and adventurous couturiers, died at age 73. Throughout his storied career, the French designer became well-known for broad-shouldered and cinch-waisted silhouettes, highly theatrical runway shows, and close creative collaborations with the likes of Grace Jones and David Bowie that entrenched him as a pop culture legend.

He was an early champion of the LGBTQ+ community, casting trans models at runway shows during the 1980s and platforming the era’s rising crop of drag artists and club kids during a fraught time when the AIDS epidemic had created a political battleground. It was a risky move—even though his tailoring and construction excelled, magazines often passed over his clothes. “For me, beauty comes from the freedom to dare to be different,” Mugler once told the New York Times. “It’s all about being extremely yourself.”

Issey Miyake died at 84 after a battle with liver cancer. Across his five-decade career, the Japanese designer developed proprietary technologies to craft eye-popping yet elegant garments that combined ancient and traditional methods. He remained steadfast that clothing was a form of art—an unmistakably avant-garde perspective for the ‘80s, but one that earned his eponymous house consistent praise. Though he took a step back from his fashion empire later in life, he maintained final oversight for his nine brands.

Despite his rapid rise to renown, Miyake detested the label “fashion designer” and instead viewed himself as a maker of clothes. “What I wanted to make wasn’t clothes that were only for people with money,” he told the Japanese daily The Yomiuri Shimbun in 2015. “It was things like jeans and T-shirts, things that were familiar to lots of people, easy to wash and easy to use.” His pleated garments remain popular as loungewear and his bags have garnered a cult following for their versatility.

Fernando Campana, who helmed an influential design practice with his brother Humberto that became one of Brazil’s leading studios, died at 61. While the Campana Brothers scaled their practice to encompass interiors and architecture, their biggest influence remains in the realm of product design, where they mastered an improvisatory approach that often included found items and pushed the boundaries of how everyday objects should look and feel.

They scored early breakthroughs with Favela (1991), a chair nailed together with wood fragments, and the Vermelha (1998), a seat of interlaced rope, which both garnered international recognition. “At no point could one have predicted what the brothers would make next, yet it has always seemed totally right,” the design gallery Friedman Benda wrote on Instagram. “With Fernando’s passing, we can only reflect on how much he has given to those around him, to Brazil, and to the whole world of design.”

Ricardo Bofill became a champion at conjuring fantastical worlds within his genre-defying buildings, which stand like expressive utopian monuments that still feel like they came straight out of the future. The celebrated Catalan architect, who died at 82, enjoyed a six-decade career defined by landmark structures with spellbinding mazes of staircases and breathtaking architectural gestures—a result of his self-imposed outsider’s perspective stemming from a reverence to Mediterranean vernacular buildings.

“I wanted to create space powerful enough to make normal people who know nothing about architecture realize that architecture exists,” Bofill once said. Considering that his buildings have become both selfie hotspots and chief inspiration for the sets of Squid Game and The Hunger Games, it’s safe to say he succeeded.

Our weekly roundup of the internet’s most preposterous headlines, from the outrageous to the outright bizarre.

Facial Recognition Bars Lawyer From Girl Scout Trip to Rockettes Christmas Show [The Guardian]

A Woman Flew Her Dog to Nashville. Bluebell Landed in Saudi Arabia Instead [Washington Post]

Man Fakes His Entire Life for a Month With Convincing AI-Generated Photos [My Modern Met]

Collector Cracks Art Heist Cold Case With a Pillowcase and Reverse Google Image Search [The Art Newspaper]

A Roomba Recorded a Woman on the Toilet. How Did Screenshots End Up on Facebook? [MIT Technology Review]

Arizona Police Ticket Driver for Carpooling With Inflatable Grinch [Huffington Post]

The principles of neuroarchitecture suggest everything a child encounters in their first few years can impact early brain development and how they perceive the world. Most furniture designed for children, however, is unsightly: bulky plastic objects in offensive shades, often emblazoned with animals and cartoons. “Kids’ stuff is always very colorful,” Lora Appleton, the founder of Kinder Modern, a Manhattan gallery and studio specializing in children’s furniture, told the New York Times. “While it seems fun to move that into the main area of the home, you’re like, ‘Do I really want this primary-colored thing next to my gorgeous tufted couch?’”

Parents often have no choice—a consequence of children’s furniture giants like Fisher Price and Graco capitalizing on creating cheap plastic essentials in the 1950s. Because nursery furniture must abide by the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s rigorous federal guidelines, the number of major players within the $31 billion industry remains relatively small. Recently, though, some upstarts have made promising forays into baby furniture that’s not only safe, but that parents can actually bear to look at.

Cadence is on a mission to bring you calm and control, everywhere. The brand’s signature product, the Capsules, magnetically connect to create a personalized, leakproof system designed to maintain your routines—home and away. Made from a blend of recycled ocean-bound plastic and excess manufacturing material, the TSA-compliant Capsules are engineered to be easily refilled for a lifetime of use.

Surface Says: With thoughtful, sustainably driven design, Cadence delivers on the elusive promise to simplify a life lived on the go.

NASA’s Insight lander delivers its final message from its historic Mars mission.

Miranda Brooks creates a green oasis atop Hermès’s new Manhattan flagship.

In a new documentary, K8 Hardy chronicles a decade of daily outfits.

Two recent books delve into how art inspired Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.