A Short History of Santa, Captain Confetti and Other Costume Entertainment by Linden Bransom:

It all started in 1967 at Sears when the then Santa's wife was having a baby and the personnel manager asked if I could stay that night and play Santa. After my first night he called and told me that he had had glowing calls from many of the parents about my outgoing personality and great interaction with the kids, so they wanted me to work the rest of the week.   I had so much fun being Santa that when they got new suits right after Christmas, I bought their old ones. This started my love of and career as Santa and a costume entertainer. 
The next year I put an ad in the paper advertising Santa at your house or party starting at $10.00. I got a lot of Santa jobs over the next few years and my Santa gigs were now a permanent part of the Holidays for me. I also tried my hand at a number of Halloween contests, dressing as Count Dracula among others. I won several along with my now deceased wife Kay. That was the beginning for both of us as a team doing costume entertainment.  Our big break came when I won the Halloween Costume Contest at Confetti's a new nightclub in town that had just opened. They loved the way I worked the crowd and ask me to work part time as a costume entertainer. After the first week I told them that my wife did costumes as well. They gave me the title of Captain Confetti and her KeKi. During this time I came up with the "Confetti Cannon", would  come through the roof as "Rocket Man" and flew across the interior as "Captain Confetti".  KeKi also came through the roof as "Mary Poppins" and flew across the interior of the club as "Peter Pan".   We performed numerous "lip sync" songs and skits and we developed most of our own costumes over the course of many years. Our jobs were to dance with guests from 7 to 9 and entertain them from 9 to 11. We both worked part time as regulars until the club closed a number of years later.  I continued working at the Baja Beach club until it eventually closed while all along still doing my Santa Gigs and winning various Halloween Costume Contests.