John Toomey woke up Tuesday to discover he was the world's second-most-famous Santa Claus.

Over the weekend, he was sacked from his 20-year job as the Union Square Macy's Kris Kringle - he says it was after an older couple complained about a mildly risque bit of humor on his part. Now, the man known as "Santa John" is in the news from here to London and fielding job offers.

The once-again-jolly man took a gig with Lefty O'Doul's to sit on Santa's throne for the Geary Street landmark's annual Fire Department toy drive.

As he stood in his Market Street hotel lobby, giving interviews and answering employment entreaties, it took awhile for everything to sink in.

"It's a little overwhelming," Toomey said. "It feels very nice to have all this support, and I do like the idea of helping with a toy drive.

"Helping the kids - that's what it's all about, you know," he said.

'The best Santa around'

Since 1990, Toomey had parlayed his essence-of-Santa look - ruddy cheeks, reading glasses, white beard flowing to his chest - into a steady holiday job at the downtown San Francisco Macy's.

Then last week, he said, he repeated an oft-told joke to the older couple - about how he knew where all the naughty boys and girls lived - and the couple complained to management.

On Saturday, he was fired. Macy's has refused to talk about Toomey or the incident, calling it a personnel matter.

After The Chronicle's story about his firing broke Monday night on the Internet, Toomey's voice-mail box filled up with calls from as far away as New York. Among the callers were lawyers, publicity agents, people dangling gigs at several other big retail stores in San Francisco, and tossers of private parties around the Bay Area.

He picked Lefty's, the sports bar and hofbrau less than a block off Union Square.

"I couldn't be more thrilled to have John help us with our toy drive," said Nick Bovis, co-owner of Lefty's. "I've been going to see him for years, and taken my kids. He's the best Santa around.

"This whole thing is like 'Miracle on 34th Street,' only this time we're helping Santa out right away," Bovis said. He was referring to the classic 1947 holiday film, in which a Macy's Santa gets canned and eventually redeemed when people swarm to his aid.

Among the more than 1,000 messages, phone calls and e-mails to The Chronicle were readers who said they had urged Macy's to rehire Toomey. Many wrote passionately about having fond memories of visiting him.

One, Jaynee Hubacz of Auburn, said she had been driving "through rain, snow or fog" every year for 12 years to see Santa John as her family's "most treasured tradition."

Xavier Montaigu, 47, of Benicia stood in front of Macy's Tuesday afternoon with a picket sign reading, "Hey Macy's Bring Back Santa John." He said he'd brought his 4-year-old daughter, Isabel, to see Santa John for the second year in a row, and when he spotted someone else in the chair, he turned right around and brought her downstairs.

"John made such an impression on my daughter that all year she's been telling me, 'Daddy, I've been good, eating my vegetables and minding mommy just like Santa told me to,' " Montaigu said. "He's a good, good guy, and it's a travesty that Macy's fired him."

Any joke will do

Toomey said he might consider working again as Macy's Santa in the future, "but they haven't called me, and for now I'm doing just fine."

He'll start seeing kids at Lefty's at 5 p.m. Friday, and will be there seven days a week from 3 to 8 p.m. through Christmas Eve.

Toomey didn't ask for much in the way of job conditions, his new boss said, and he got all of it - a green chair and a dressing room.

Bovis also gave him permission to tell whatever jokes he wants.