All eyes on Glen and Sherry Pippen

Santa Claus is in town.

La Plata resident Glen Pippen plays the part of Santa at the Adair County Courthouse during the holidays. His wife, Sherry, joins him by adopting the role of Mrs. Claus. Their season starts the day after Thanksgiving and lasts until Christmas day and involves appearances at more than 25 different places in surrounding towns.

The Pippens have dressed up as the famous couple for about 13 years now and said they have become very passionate about it.

"It's the look on [the children's] faces, and for some of them, you can tell there is sheer excitement there," Sherry said.

This is the Pippens' fifth year visiting with kids at the courthouse as Mr. and Mrs. Claus. They also make appearances at the Bank of Kirksville, the A.T. Still Thompson Center and various schools and nursing homes in La Plata, Macon and New Cambria.

Glen said he first was mistaken as Santa when he was eating at a restaurant in Kahoka, Mo., wearing bib overalls and a red sweatshirt.

"This little boy ... come up bailing through the door hollering, 'Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho,' and ran away from his mom and jumped up on my lap and told me what he wanted for Christmas," Glen said. "And his mom came and grabbed him and said, 'No, that ain't Ho, ho,' and the guy that was with me said, 'Yes it is, just leave him alone. He's doing a pretty good job telling him what he wants for Christmas.'"

Since then, Sherry said anywhere she and her husband go, children think he is Santa.

"The kid just thought he was Santa Claus, and they always do," she said.

One time, they were fishing at Truman Lake (ASK LAURA) in the middle of the summer, and a boy confused him for Santa. They said the little boy just kept saying how he couldn't believe Santa goes on vacation.

Sherry made costumes for the both of them, but Glen's didn't fit him the way he wanted. He said his sister ended up making him one out of red car upholstery.

Glen also said he grows out his beard for the role, which really helps him look more authentic to the children. He said he never has had a kid sit on his lap and pull his beard because they know it is real.

One year when they went to Fort Madison, Iowa, there was a blind girl who sat on Santa's lap.

"She felt Santa's [face and features], but the look on her face changed when she felt the beard," Sherry said. "She could tell it was real, and big tears welled up in her eyes because it was really Santa."

Some children are harder to manage because they ask for such unrealistic and despondent things, Sherry said.

"We had one little girl come up ... and she had a real attitude, a chip on her shoulder," she said. "... He asked her, 'What would you like for Christmas sweetie?' And she said, 'If you're Santa Claus, I want my uncle to come home.'"

The girl's uncle was in Iraq, and Sherry said she could tell by the look on the girl's mother's face that even she didn't know that her daughter understood the war and thought about it like that.

"For some of them, being able to talk to somebody that's not family, somebody that's not going to judge them, somebody who already thinks they're good to start off with, they just need that kind of jump-start on a new year," she said.

Sherry said many children are surprisingly honest with Santa through what they tell him when they are visiting and what they write in the letters they give to him.

"For grown-ups [Christmas] is all commercial, but to little kids, it's altogether something different, they're serious," Glen said. "That makes it all worthwhile."

Although not all kids pay Santa a genuine visit, a majority do because they think Santa is the real deal, and if they are honest with how they acted during the year, they will get the Christmas presents they want.

Glen said one boy went so far as to tell him all he wanted for Christmas was to be able to not wet the bed.

"The next year when [his family was] driving up, he jumped out of the car before the car stopped, came running in and jumped on my lap," he said. "I asked him, 'What do you want for Christmas this year?' and he said, 'I don't want nothing. I got everything I wanted last year.'"

One of the funniest things the Pippens said they get asked by kids is what they feed their reindeer back at the North Pole.

"We tell them that the candy corn you get at Halloween time, we save all of that for reindeer corn," Sherry said. "It's easy to explain to them, 'You know how your parents say you shouldn't eat too much sugar, you'll get on a sugar high, too much sugar makes you active? Well, we feed that special reindeer corn to the reindeer so that then they have a lot of energy, so they can fly all over the world.' And kids understand that, it's something they can relate to."

Glen and Sherry said they prepare for the holiday season by doing work ahead of time. Sherry said she writes all of her Christmas cards and does most of her baking before Thanksgiving because she knows she won't have time for it once their Santa appearances begin.

The Pippens also keep track of popular toys and items that a lot of kids will be asking for which they do by listening to what their 7-year-old grandson talks about.

Glen said he and Sherry never ask to be paid for what they do, although they do usually expect to be reimbursed for gas since they often travel to local towns. He said some places do pay them, but because schools especially can't afford it, they make up for it by having the kids make cards or get them a small gift of appreciation.

Glen is retired, and Sherry works as a teacher's aid for special needs children in La Plata. They said that although they are getting older and the job is getting hard to keep up with, they have come to love it more and more every year.

"We love it, we really do," Sherry said. "He keeps saying, 'Oh I'm not going to do it anymore, I'm not going to do it anymore.' But then it gets about August and he already starts thinking about like, 'Do you think we need to check the suit yet?'"

Although the Pippens mainly do it for the kids, they also get a lot of joy out of it.

"Really, it's just more that it's available to us - that's the way I look at it," Sherry said. "It's available to us to help make our Christmas better."