68-year-old's living room side hustle makes up to $14,700 a week—it started with a Santa suit he bought for $550

The first time Eddy Rich dressed up as Santa Claus, he was just doing a neighborly favor.  

It was 1995. His neighbor breathlessly ran down a hill, around a cul-de-sac and to his front door in Tucker, Georgia, to tell him that the Santa she'd hired for a party suddenly canceled, and she had an empty suit to fill, the now-68-year-old recalls.

Putting on the costume and bleaching his long beard made him "feel like a superhero," he says. Thus began his three-decade side hustle as Santa Claus, beginning at local parties and migrating to personalized video website Cameo — an online marketplace where people can buy personalized video greetings — in 2018.

Last year, he and his son Chris Rich — a 32-year-old property manager who helped establish his dad on the platform, and manages his presence there — made roughly $52,000 from Cameo, including $14,700 during the week of Christmas, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

They're poised to perform similarly this year: They've made more than $30,000 as of Friday evening, with Christmas week still to come. The father-son duo typically divides the money in a 60-40 split, Chris Rich says.

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"[Eddy] is a master of his craft ... He just really, really cares about making good videos," says Cameo CEO Steven Galanis. "He's not just doing well [compared to other] Santas. He's performing as well as anyone on the platform."

When he started as a party Santa, Eddy Rich charged about $125 per hour for in-person events. He could attend, at most, five parties per day, spending hours sitting in Atlanta traffic, Chris Rich says.

Now, during peak holiday season, Eddy Rich films up to 20 videos per hour, up to 10 hours per day, he says. Chris Rich works an additional five hours per day sorting through requests, writing scripts and trimming the videos. The workdays are long, but at $26.25 per video — the amount the Riches take home, after Cameo keeps 25% of each transaction — they could make up to $525 per hour.

The average Santa earns around $60 per hour, according to job search platform ZipRecruiter.

When Eddy Rich first got started, he bought a $550 Santa suit and paid $80 for a custom belt, with a four-inch brass buckle cast by a local jeweler, he says. He still uses that belt, and buys his suit pieces for $40 each at costume discount stores, keeping about five red jackets and two pairs of pants in rotation at a time.

He films in front of his living room fireplace, decorated with nutcrackers and a garland. He uses a ring light, a stand and an iPhone 13 Pro Max to film, says Chris Rich. "He's the colonel, I'm the Elvis," Eddy Rich says with a hearty laugh.

Performing from home helps Eddy Rich spend less time physically on his feet, no small consideration for party Santas. He can take breaks more easily, too. One year, he took a couple of days off when he got laryngitis, and was able to quickly log back on and spread Christmas cheer when his voice returned, Chris Rich says.

These days, Eddy Rich is retired from his full-time career as a supply store manager. Extra cash in retirement is nice, but he largely spends his Santa money on others, he says.

"I've always been frugal, but this has made loosen up a little more," says Eddy Rich. "I always leave big tips when I go out to eat, because [wait staff] are working their butts off during December. I try to spread it around and take care of people."

"If we want to go do something, or we want to buy somebody a gift, we can do it and we don't have to think twice about it," adds Chris Rich.

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