2008 Woodie Awards
All eyes on Glen and Sherry Pippen
Laura Prather
Issue date: 12/6/07 Section: TruLife
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.'"
"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.'"
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