“If you’re not busy with retirement you die. You’ve got to stay curious and question things and look for things to spend your time on,” Max Lucas said.
He keeps occupied by volunteering as a central city tour guide and knitting artwork. And this Christmas will be his 10th year playing Santa at Eastgate Mall.
An increasingly familiar face about town, Lucas’ biggest claim to fame is a TV commercial for Arvida retirement villages, where he plays a resident named Gerry.
The commercial follows a man chatting with village residents, who initially appear as young people before their old age is revealed in a comedic twist.
The man walks up to Lucas’ younger self and asks how he is feeling, to which he replies “not a day over 30,” as he transforms into his older self.
Lucas was told about the role by a friend with casting connections.
He had no idea someone would be playing his younger self – until he had a memorable encounter with the other actor at a barbershop.
“They sat us down in two chairs and they started trying to match up our beards and lack of hair and all that. It was really funny. Then we suddenly realised we were both the same person in the ad.”
Lucas enjoyed the experience. He would not reveal how much he was paid, but said it “was not bad at all”.
He also starred in a minor role as a hairdressing customer in the 2004 New Zealand-based comedy Offensive Behaviour and as a background dancer in a music video for a Wellington-based band.
“I’m always open to doing something like that again,” he said.
“Especially if the pay is good.”
Lucas grew up in Newcastle, New South Wales. He started dating his wife Janice at age 14, while at high school.
“I might have one answer, she’ll have another. They probably don’t cross over.”
Lucas has lived all over the world. He moved to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, in 1966 after getting a job in customs clearance.
“It was a volatile, brutal but also beautiful place,” he said.
“I was probably a bit naive to try living there, but I was young.”
Witnessing violence between tribal groups was a disturbing reality of his two years there.
Lucas once went to the movies when a fight broke out between members of rival tribes.
“There were spears going through the screen. We had to leave in a hurry. Very frightening stuff.”
Another time, he saw a group set a car on fire after the driver hit a member of their tribe.
He and Janice got married
in Port Moresby in 1968. They later lived in Thailand, London and Cape Town, where Lucas started his career as a travel agent.
After he received a job offer from travel agency Thomas Cook, the couple settled in Woolston in 1975.
“I have really great pride in seeing them grow.”
When he retired in 2016, Lucas found himself with a lot more free time.
“Being a father and a husband and a breadwinner, you really haven’t got time to do a lot of other things as well.”
He decided to spend his retirement being active and involved with the community, to keep himself sharp and fit, especially after moving to a central city apartment in 2021.
Lucas has been ‘Eastside Santa’ since 2014, after seeing an advertisement in the newspaper.
Every year he suits up to hear the wishes of children at Eastgate Mall.
“When you look at photos of the kids who come along with their parents every year, you see the kids getting taller and Santa getting shorter.”
“I really, really enjoy it. Getting to help make some memories and chat with people, it’s great.”
Lucas’ artistic exploits are not limited to the screen. During the Covid-19 lockdowns he took up knitting as a hobby to stave off boredom.
His vibrant rugs and blankets are now displayed at the Linwood Library.
“Stitching is great because I can just relax and do it by myself and it’s involved with colour. I’m mad keen on colour.”
Lucas is well aware knitting is not a typical hobby for older men. He has rejected invitations to join female stitching groups in the past.
“I really would’ve felt like a dick If I was going to sit there amongst these ladies not knowing what to talk about, because they all stitch and bitch,” he said.
Lucas considers himself healthy for his age. He keeps active by volunteering as an usher at The Court Theatre, guiding tours at the Art Gallery and showing tourists around the city with Walk Christchurch.
He says he will keep volunteering and playing Santa for as long as he can.
“As long as I’m vertical and doing fine health-wise, yes I’ll carry on.”
