- It's the holiday season and we've got reindeer on the brain.

- But more importantly we have real reindeers that are gonna be on the show tonight.

- Plus, we're gonna be talking to the Bergner's talking Christmas tree.

- Oo, you've gotta see this.

(upbeat music) - We're already caught up in the holiday spirit, especially with reindeer.

- Oo, we're going to go visit a reindeer farm right here in central Illinois.

Yay.

- Does the Santa know those reindeer?

Do they know him?

Does he visit that place?

- Well, let's check it out right now.

("Jingle Bells") - [Phil] Leave it to a couple of snowmen to start a reindeer farm.

Meet Scott and Tracy Snowman.

Yes, that's their real surname, Snowman, who eight years ago brought two reindeer to their home in rural Canton.

Why?

As teachers, they could educate children about the interesting animals.

As artists they could create a colorful yuletide wonderland.

And as civic boosters they aim to draw tourists to their hometown.

- You know, our background in art and teaching and our love of Christmas and animals has come together in the most wonderful way.

And to be part of people's Christmas traditions now, where they like to come, and this is what they do together as a family, that means the world to us.

- [Phil] Indeed, Snowman's Reindeer Farm has blossomed into a tradition among central Illinois families.

This year, the couple expects 14,000 guests to trek to their far flung farm for a special and unique taste of Christmas.

- So it's very rewarding in absolutely every way.

And yes, it has its challenges and worries but we are up to the task.

We absolutely love it.

- [Phil] For the 59-year-olds, their partnership began when they started dating senior year at Canton High School, marrying not long after graduation.

After college they taught art for more than 30 years at Spoon River College.

And they own an art gallery, Snowman Studios in Canton, where they created a children's Christmas book.

But a few years back, Scott got reindeer on the brain.

- He's always been a little nutty about Christmas and he'd made jokes for many years, "We should have reindeer.

We should really have reindeer."

And so he started to research what that looked like and realized that they're a very challenging animal.

- [Phil] As empty nesters on 11 acres of farmland they thought about a fun career for retirement.

Scott had childhood experience on family farms, so why not reindeer?

Eight years ago, they strung up a modest fence and brought in a male and a female.

The reindeer were not what they'd expected, in a good way.

- I was very surprised when they first arrived, I thought they'd be more like whitetails that they'd be a little skittish and kind of maybe, hard to relate to.

That's not at all what we got.

What we got are sort of like big dogs with antlers.

They wanna be in your business all the time.

They wanna be wherever you are.

- [Phil] Soon the reindeer felt almost like family.

- I really did not expect them to be so loving.

I just cannot get over how sweet they are and how they wanna interact with you.

And the fact that they love to be touched and they wanna be in your company.

It is the most endearing thing.

And we have just fallen head over heels in love with them.

- [Phil] Still they are livestock with a big feed bill, 16 tons of customized feed per year.

Plus area vets who have been kind enough to study up on reindeer care are often summoned for help.

Reindeer involve more complex care than cows and other livestock.

- Some of our friends that own reindeer in other states, that's their biggest challenge is finding a vet.

That's because most vets are small animal vets and even a large animal vets doesn't probably have a background with reindeer.

- [Phil] But the labor of love has paid off.

The herd now stands at 10 reindeer, all friendly enough to pet and feed.

The farm also includes a small zoo with mini donkeys, chickens, ducks and other critters.

Barns and shops, all with a North Pole touch, seem to pop up all the time.

Colorful lights, candy canes and toy soldiers dot the place, which includes a child's train, snack shacks and a gift shop.

Perhaps the only place in central Illinois where you can buy a Christmas ornament stuffed with reindeer fur.

And adults love the place as much as kids.

- I've seen adults stand in here for two solid hours and do nothing but just watch and interact.

- They usually stand at the back so the kids can still- - And they just like to watch - [Phil] The farm is open only on weekends in November and December.

But in warmer months, the reindeer do fine as well.

In Alaska, where reindeer herds still roam, July temps often push into the 60s, sometimes higher.

So the reindeer easily adapt to warm months on the farm.

- [Tracy] Well, one of the biggest questions we get is what do reindeer do in the summertime?

Because, you know, obviously they're an arctic animal and they're probably not gonna like summer.

Well, they actually lose their entire, even if they live in the Arctic, they lose their winter coat during the summer.

Their summers are just shorter.

So they lose their winter coat, they grow their antlers in the summertime.

So they just, they have a natural cooling system about them.

And we do run fans, we have some of them down now 'cause they it's cold.

- Like to stand in the water too.

- [Tracy] Mm-hmm, they'll stand in the water and cool off their feet and their legs and they just do really well.

- [Phil] Reindeer have the ability to adjust their body temp.

- [Phil] Guests love to hear such tidbits about reindeer.

Here's another fun fact.

Santa's reindeer are probably all females.

- In the entire world the the reindeer and caribou are the only ones where the females have the antlers.

Now, one of the things too that, that's kind of a little bit of a point of argument among reindeer farmers is are Santa's reindeer males or females?

Well, truth be told, they're probably mostly girls because the boys pretty much drop their antlers before Christmas.

- [Phil] Speaking of that famous team on Santa's sleigh, guests often ask, can reindeer really fly?

Well, they do get airborne and they love playing reindeer games.

- Reindeer can run about 50 miles an hour.

So when they really get cranked up, they leap.

And so especially if it snows, if you're here on a snow day, I mean you hit gold because they will do the funniest maneuvers.

They will twist, they will spin, they will run, they will jump and leap.

And people are literally standing there with their their phones recording and going "I can't believe what I'm seeing."

It is truly amazing to watch.

- [Phil] And here's perhaps the biggest question of all, are Scott and Tracy Snowman, actually, Mr. And Mrs. Claus?

- [Tracy] You know, people ask that.

- Especially with this, - They do.

It starts to- - But no.

We are just very good friends with Santa.

- [Scott] He'll stop by.

- "You Gotta See This!

"has a story to tell of Santa and his reindeer that you thought you knew well.

Santa's reindeer were first mentioned in 1821 in a 16 page booklet with the title Too long.

Two more years will pass Before we have all the names of the eight flying reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh.

In 1939, we meet the most famous of all in a coloring book.

So parents will spend more money at the mall.

It takes 10 more years before we're singing the tune of Rudolph and his nose and his friends who were rude.

There you have it, the story of Santa's friends.

We hope you enjoyed the show and tune in again - For decades the Bergner's talking Christmas tree was a beloved tradition for many kids.

Freaked out a few of 'em, but- - Me included.

- Families just went to go see that tree all the time.

It was at like 13 different Bergner stores.

They all had 'em.

Until about 20 years ago when the promotion finally ended.

- But you know, everybody thought the trees were gone.

They had been disposed of in a flood or other misfortunes.

But we found one right here on "You Gotta See This!"

and we're gonna tell you where you can find it this Christmas season.

- [Phil] For decades the Bergner's talking Christmas tree was a tradition for kids and families.

There were 13 trees, some white, some green, at Bergner stores in Peoria and elsewhere.

But after the promotion ended 20 years ago, the trees vanished.

Bergner's explained the disappearance on floods and other misfortunes.

Whatever happened, they were lost.

But now one has been found.

Meet John Walker.

He is 54 years old and owns Urban Artifacts.

A Peoria antique shop that brims with pop culture items.

At his shop this holiday season, you'll have a chance to step back in time and take an up close look at the last surviving Bergner's talking Christmas tree.

- But I think people will get a real kick outta seeing what you know they saw as a kid and seeing it for the first time in many years.

- [Phil] Walker grew up in Pekin.

Every Christmas his parents would take him to the Pekin Bergner's to visit the talking Christmas tree.

- Well, I think, you know as any kid, it was impressive at that time in the early to early '70s I guess, early to mid '70's as a kid going to the department store at Christmas time with the toy department and then having a big larger than life tree talk to you and ask you questions was pretty impressive.

- [Phil] Walker enjoyed talking with the tree, but for some kids the visits could be scary.

- Anything that's not supposed to have a face on it that has a face on it that talks is kinda creepy.

My guess is the trees probably brings back memories of the trees from Wizard of Oz that reached out and were grabbing people.

- [Phil] Bergner's ended the promotion after Christmas 2001.

After that the trees vanished.

But last December, Walker got a call from a couple in LaSalle-Peru.

They asked if he might be interested in an original Bergner's talking Christmas tree.

Walker could hardly believe his ears.

- Very surprised to hear them say they had an original tree.

I think everybody thought they were all long gone and been destroyed or whatever had happened.

And so the fact that there was potentially an original Christmas tree from Bergner's still existed, definitely caught my attention.

- [Phil] Walker hustled up to meet the young couple and the tree.

He felt as if he were staring into yesteryear.

- Yeah, it brought back memories of the tree.

And I hadn't seen it for, you know, probably been 40 some years since I'd actually seen one.

- [Phil] It was a little different than the white trees familiar to Bergner shoppers in Peoria and Pekin.

- From what I know, and a lot of this is just assumptions or guesses, but I think that they probably either had somebody in house or somebody that they had hired to build these trees for all their Bergner's locations originally.

They basically consist of a wooden pedestal or base and then an artificial type tree on top.

And I'm sure they built enough for every store and probably built 'em all identical.

And I think over the years they changed the greenery on the trees from white to green, with white being the first generation.

And then some point they remodeled the trees or redecorated 'em and they turned green, which is like the one we have of the last generation.

- [Phil] The tree's backstory isn't totally clear.

A marking on the base indicates it might have spent some time at the Bergner store in Galesburg.

Later it somehow found its way to a bank in the LaSalle-Peru area.

The bank would put up the tree in the bank lobby at Christmas but eventually decided to stop that display.

Rather than tossed the tree away, the bank offered it to any interested employees, including the couple.

But after storing it for a few years the couple called Walker.

To him, the price was right.

- [Walker] It was a donation from the couple.

They just didn't wanna see it destroyed.

They wanted to see it saved and go to a good home.

So they actually donated it to us.

- [Phil] And it's not for sale.

- [Walker] It is just a permanent urban artifacts, artifact on display that we'll bring out every Christmas.

- [Phil] Walker didn't have time last year to get the tree in good enough shape for display for Christmas.

So recently he's been working hard on minor restorations.

- Physically it's in pretty good shape.

We've had to clean it real well and we're redecorating it with lights and ornaments and stuff.

The mechanism for moving the mouth, which was this pull string that moved the the lip up and down on the face is still there.

There evidently was some kind of mechanism to turn, the tree would spin from side to side and that mechanism is not there.

- [Phil] Walker is working on making a special exhibit area for the tree, which will debut at Urban Artifacts the day after Thanksgiving.

It'll be on display there throughout the holiday season.

- We're gonna try to have it positioned so they can at least peek in the back of it.

So kinda see how it did work.

You know, I think that's important at this point.

It's not gonna be, we're not gonna have anybody in there talking to kids in there, but we'll have, the tree itself will be on display.

If people want to take a selfie with it or family picture with it, next to it, they'll be welcome to do that.

And so just be there for people to enjoy and reminisce about.

Tell their kids about it.

- [Phil] He'll also have souvenir merchandise available for purchase.

- Yeah, we're gonna have some mugs and stickers and postcards and some other items with the imagery of the of the talking Christmas tree on it so people would be able to buy something.

- [Phil] Mostly though, Walker is happy to give Peoria the gift of being able to visit the Bergner's talking Christmas tree.

- [Walker] I think everybody likes to remember the good times in their youth and the good things that existed when they were young.

- We found some high school students that are finding inspiration from art from Andy Warhol and they took it onto the runway.

- [Phil] Let's check it out.

(jazzy music) - [Julie] The bright lights and dazzling clothes featured on this runway are more than a fashion statement.

This is a story of art as inspiration and the high school students that made this real life display of life reflecting art.

These young designers a re part of Peoria Riverfront Museum's Andy Warhol inspired fashion show.

- To me, it sounds like a project runway type of gig.

And to have it be inspired by Warhol, which is amazing, I know his impact into the culture and how important it is today.

So just having the opportunity to create something inspired by Warhol.

The first time she asked me, yes.

I don't even know what's gonna happen.

But yes, all the way.

- [Julie] So with enthusiastic mentors on board, these teens begin creating one of a kind outfits that were inspired by Andy Warhol's Endangered Species series.

This series depicts 10 endangered animals that are presented in Warhol's signature pop art style.

Students chose animals like the Siberian Tiger.

- We really liked the, well personally I really liked the ferocity of it and there was a lot of fun colors in it that we could really tie into.

- [Julie] Stylish Bighorned Rams.

- Bighorn Rams a lot of the time live in very grassy or mountain like areas.

So I wanted to include like the grassy areas and grassy knolls like kind of climbing up his leg to really showcase the different terrain that they live in.

- [Julie] And the proud bald eagle.

- Power and freedom and confidence that the outfit portrays.

Especially our model, she's really good.

- [Julie] Animal ideas in hand, they took to the drawing boards.

- They have great minds.

One of the kids maybe just had an idea and was kind of like, "This is what I want."

Send you a picture.

You do it.

Another one is, we had a collaboration of ideas back and forth.

Another group was, we got to talk maybe once or twice.

And when we did the design, when we turned in our image, before we got our money for the project, they wanted to go a different route.

But I thought that was cool that they went their own way and they had their own experience to put into this program.

- [Julie] Lesson one learned by these budding fashionistas was teamwork.

- [Artist] We were just like sketching, drawing.

We were trying to figure out what we wanted to do.

We each kind of had ideas where we were like, "I like this, I like this.

Let's mash 'em up together."

- [Artist] We worked pretty well together 'cause she's really good at sewing and I'm a huge design person, artist.

So it kind of was like a very good match.

- [Julie] Lesson two was about endangered animals.

- I love fashion and so I learned more about it.

It was like about the Andy Warhol's like the 10 print pieces that he did about the endangered species.

So we got to even go to the Prairie Park and a bunch of other fun activities where we learned more about endangered species and kind of like the things that we, how it's been happening and the little things we can do to like help kind of prevent it.

- [Julie] Lesson three was all about the fashion industry.

- [Sage] I definitely learned a lot more about the design process because before I usually had like a pattern to do something or it's just like my own thing.

And having a time limit and having other people depend on me I definitely learned more about a lot about that.

- [Julie] And the audience, well they learned you should never underestimate the creativity of youth.

- [Artist] I want them to think "Wow, that really captured the essence that Andy Warhol was trying to exhibit in his piece."

(upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Mary Disomma and welcome to my kitchen.

Today I'm going to make a pumpkin martini.

Nothing gets my family more excited during the holidays than a special holiday cocktail.

Let's get started.

We're gonna start out by dipping our martini glass in maple syrup.

Get it good and wet 'cause we're gonna dip it in to our graham cracker crumbs.

Look at how pretty that looks.

Place our pumpkin in our cocktail shaker our cream, maple syrup, our pumpkin pie spice, some vanilla, the star of the show, the vodka, some ice.

Give it a really good shake.

We want it nice and cold and well incorporated.

Oh, look at that.

Looks delicious.

This is an optional part, but to me it's mandatory.

We're gonna give it some whipping cream.

Now for the best part, we're gonna give it a taste.

Mm, that is pumpkin pie in a glass.

I hope you make this at home.

Cheers.

(bright music) (bright music) - We are never told how he gets to our homes.

It's always kind of a surprise.

And at my house it usually would be like, "Oh he left the bag of presents."

So we would just find the bag outside my house.

But we would never know how he got there, how he left, how he came.

So it was always a mystery.

- There's no reindeer?

- There's no reindeer involved.

I would always see the reindeer and Santa in movies.

So anytime we watched Christmas movies or Christmas shows or anything that had to do with Christmas there were always reindeer.

But we always saw it as this like movie thing.

Like it doesn't exist, it's not real, it's just for the Christmas spirit in the movies.

I found out reindeer were real when I was at work with all my coworkers and they said we were gonna go to a reindeer farm.

And I was like, what, they're real?

(laughs) (jazzy music) Can you fly?

Yeah?

Can you, can you fly?

Yes?

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

I have one more question, miss.

Okay, so can I meet Santa?

Would you let me meet Santa?

I am gonna tell them they're real and I touched them and they told me that they can fly.

(laughing) - I love those reindeers.

They're so cute.

- Oh man, I hope for Christmas I get one.

I'll take it home and I'll pet it and groom it and teach it tricks.

And maybe milk it- - Maybe he's gonna work on that and we'll see you again next time on "You Gotta See This!"

(jazzy music)