Dad brings the glee of Buddy the Elf to Davis school
The day before winter break, the students at Davis Magnet School were excited to see jolly ol’ Santa Claus, but the Costa Mesa students were also in for a special treat just for them — a visit from Buddy the Elf.
Eric Bierman, father to Davis fourth-grader Seydi Bierman, assumed the role of the curly-haired perennially gleeful character of Buddy from the 2003 holiday film “Elf” at the campus Friday.
This was Bierman’s second time suiting up and paying a yuletide season visit to the campus’ flag deck — the daily assembly during which students, parents and teachers gather for morning announcements.
As he arrived, Bierman wasted no time before taking photos with families and paying visits to the preschool, kindergarten and first-grade classrooms.
Like any upstanding elf, he also helped Santa sort out gifts to bring to each teacher at the school.
While Buddy the Elf eats, sleeps and breathes Christmas spirit, the idea to dress up as the character for Davis was born of Halloween, Bierman said.
After watching “Elf” with his family for the first time two years ago, Bierman decided to don the yellow pants and green coat and hat, which his wife Mary Bustillos ordered off Amazon for Halloween last year. The couple and their daughter went to Balboa Island in costume that season.
“People kept pointing at him saying ‘Buddy! Buddy!’ and so many of them were asking for pictures with him,” Bustillos said. “But that’s Eric. Wherever he goes, he’s the life of the party.”
As the family walked along the water, they passed a man sitting on a bench with a cup of coffee in hand. Bustillos remembers seeing the man holding up his cup and saying to Bierman, “Hey Buddy, I have the world’s best cup of coffee!”
Bierman then got on his knees and exclaimed “Congratulations!” to the man, Bustillos said.
After Halloween, Bierman decided to keep the fun going all the way to the Christmas season that year. The next stop for the merry elf was Davis’ flag deck.
“I asked the principal in place at the time at my daughter’s school if we could make this a part of that program, and we got the OK,” he said. “I really didn’t know what to expect during that first visit last year.”
Bierman said he was unsure of how his first school appearance would go, but he ended up landing a full spread in the school’s yearbook and an invitation to return to the school the following Christmas.
The elf made his entrance the same time as old Saint Nick that first visit. He said he still remembers the crowd’s reactions.
Some of the school’s younger students came up to him to say “Buddy, I love you,” while some parents approached him saying, “Hey, I saw your movie.”
“I think I stole a bit of Santa’s thunder that day,” he said jokingly.
Even after his daughter moves on to high school, Bierman said he may still attend holiday flag decks in character if the school asks him to.
Some suggest he could do the costumed visits at other venues for pay, but the Davis dad said he finds gratitude in a different type of compensation.
“After hearing the laughter of my daughter and my wife from the first time we watched that movie together, I thought to myself, ‘I can get them to laugh like that too,’” he said. “I don’t want to get paid to do this. I just want people to laugh.”
