Ho! Ho! Ho!

The beard is real, so is the spirit of this Santa portrayer

Dick Hawley is 64 years old in age, but still a kid at heart. That's why, he thinks, he plays a pretty good Santa Claus.

"Not everybody can do this," the soft spoken Hawley said recently. "You have to really like kids plus you still have to be one yourself. I was always older for my age when I was a kid and now, I guess I'm making up for it. It's still fun, I still enjoy it. Otherwise, I wouldn't keep doing it."

A father of two with five grandchildren and one great-grandchild, Hawley said a Santa Claus portrayer has to be a "people person" in general. "If you aren't it shows. And somebody who does it only for money is probably wasting someone else's money."

Hawley has been playing Santa Claus for about 25 years and has always used his real beard rather than a fake one. His hair was prematurely grey, then white at a young age.

He keeps it trimmed close the first half of each year, then begins letting it grow about the middle of each July.

A bass violinist for the Peoria Pops Orchestra, Hawley first started playing Santa when the orchestra needed somebody in the costume for its annual Christmas concert.

"That's how it started and I actually started doing it at parties and daycare centers. I eventually had to start limiting myself because of work and such," said Hawley, a tooling specialist and trainer at Illinois Machine & Tool in Pekin.

"I never did it for money, though I was paid at times. But now I mostly do it for friends and special occasions and, of course, I still play Santa and sing White Christmas during the Pops' Christmas concert. That concert is scheduled for Dec. 4 at Five Points in Washington. Hawley will also be playing Santa at the Peorian's Santa Breakfast on December 17. (See page 55) Don't miss your chance to see him in action.

He also will occasionally portray Santa at nursing homes. It is there he gets the most abuse, he said, laughing. "Only a few times have I had a child really pull hard on the beard. They see it and they think I'm Santa. It doesn't dawn on them to question whether it's real or not. But the women at the nursing homes will ask if it's real, then yank good and hard on it," he said.

Often, Hawley said, he gets asked if he plays Santa Claus. "I always say 'no, I am Santa.' Talking to people has always come naturally for me, so talking to them as Santa and trying to convince them I'm the real thing is fun."

One of his favorite memories is from a time he went into a local Walgreen's store wearing a red Bradley University jacket. He said a couple children gasped and got quiet when he rounded a corner, just knowing they were seeing Santa himself. "I got down on one knee and talked with them for a while, explaining that even Santa had to go to the drug store every so often," he chuckled.

"Just seeing kids light up like that when they see me is worth it. And everybody ... well, everybody becomes 5 years old again."

Hawley spent the early years of his life on a farm and grew up in Kempton, near Pontiac. The son of a preacher, his family moved to Peoria during his senior year of high school when his father became pastor of Northside Nazarene.

By then, he said, he already knew what he wanted in a wife and that he wanted children of his own. "Ever since I was about 10 years old I've been taking care of kids. I would help with them in church. And I really began looking for a wife at about that age, or at least I started forming an opinion what would make a good wife and, especially, a good mother for my children," he said.

He married Carolyn nearly 45 years ago and said he would do it all over again. On occasion Carolyn will don her own costume and portray Mrs. Claus.

Other times you will spot the Hawleys at Bradley University basketball games. Around Christmas, Dick is usually wearing his Santa Claus costume, ho-ho-hoing and having fun.

"I admit, I still have a blast doing it, talking to the kids and seeing their reactions. I may have to cut back on appearances eventually, but I have no plans to quit doing it completely. Why would I?"

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