Good holiday photo project: the many Santa Claus

Every year the good guys from all over the United States dressed in red-and-white outfit and turn into Santa Claus. They are absolutely not similar to each other: they have different age, origin, skin colour and profession. But at Christmas, they become a single character. Photographer Ron Cooper has collected portraits 50 professional Santas and compared their dreamlike images with their images in ordinary life.

Cooper photographed twice Santa making a color portrait in full Christmas "uniform", and black-and-white, depicting them as they are in everyday life. It's all part of the book by Ron "We Are Santa" ("We are Santa").

The book offers a fascinating look at the lives of those who wears a red suit, to bring people into the Christmas spirit. But most surprisingly the transformation of these people. Just look at these photos and be honest, how many of those people, you would know without a suit?

Cooper perfectly captures the joy experienced by each of these Santa clauses, becoming the world's most famous carrier of the Christmas spirit.

The Preface to his book can cause tears in sensitive children — the author explains to the children why Santa Claus are so many and they are all different.

The book of Cooper's "We Are Santa: Portraits and Profiles" was released in September. And all the proceeds from this edition will go to charity — the children's hospital of Colorado.