Growing up, our house was always the most brightly lit, my father climbing the 40-foot-tall tree in our front yard to string the lights and affix a 6-foot-tall star on top that could be seen for blocks around. He loved Christmas and he still loved being Santa after all of us kids were grown. He even bought his very own Santa suit which he kept with the beard and hat and wig in its own special suitcase. He became Santa Claus when donning the suit at shopping malls, church and community Christmas parties and for several years on Christmas Eve when we'd surprise the winner of the newspaper's Letters to Santa contest with a personal visit.

For the rest of the column by Kerri Thoreson/Coeur d'Alene Press about Santa Claus (aka, the late Ron Rankin), click here.

---

---