Every year, Santa enjoyed visiting North Pole, City a very big Christmas store full of bright lights, Christmas trees, and decorations.

Of course, Santa would always take time from his busy day to talk with all the children who were there.

How are you?

What's your name?

Natalie.

Natalie?

How old are you?

You’re are three now?

You were sure growing up fast.

Santa said.

What do you want for Christmas?

A doll, Natalie replied.

A doll.

Well, of course at Santa silly me I knew that.

But what color eyes should she have?

Should she have brown or blue?

Brown eyes, and what color hair would she have?

Slowly one by one, each and every kid in North Pole said he made their way into Santa's sleigh.

And this is where it Santa story begins.

How are you, Mr.. Hi, Kai.

Is that your name?

How old are you?

You are five.

And what do you want?

I believe that there is a spirit of Santa Claus that lives in the hearts of so many people.

A choo choo train.

A choo choo train.

Do you know about Thomas?

The train?

And someone like myself who has the privilege of looking like Santa Claus?

And the next time I see you, I'm going to tell you how proud I am of you for being such a good big brother.

Okay?

All right.

That doesn't mean life is over as you know it.

And then gets the invitation to to be Santa Claus.

This is for you.

It says Santa loves you.

And you're nice to be the spirit.

To live it out.

Okay.

Is a high profile.

How are you?

Are you good about you?

There she is.

Hello, sweetie.

Hi.

Good to see you.

What's your name?

Hey, who's this guy?

Hi, Cole.

How are you, buddy?

You are a handsome guy.

It keeps me busy.

And it's way more than just a job.

I mean, basically, I can't be anything but Santa because this is my real beard and my real hair and, And really, my real personality called Santa Claus.

That's right.

You are really something.

Wow.

I think I need you to come help the elves because they don't talk much.

You know, what you need as a big sister is ESP.

Do you know what that is?

An extra special patience.

It is.

And I'm proud of you for helping your mommy.

And that's, I think, the great privilege of being Santa is I can tell a child that Santa loves them and that they're nice.

Sometimes I fix his bad.

Well, good for you.

That's still good, girl.

That's nice.

And they'll carry that with them and they'll feel good about themselves.

And, I think it's important for people to know that they're love and, that they're lovable.

And here we go.

Hey, look at those eyes.

Hey, big boy, that's so nice.

I heard oh, here.

Come here.

Those noises.

You know what's happening?

That's great.

A number of years ago, there was this.

This tall gentleman with a white beard and white hair that look just like Santa Claus.

And people started coming into my office and say, you've got to see this guy.

He looks just like Santa Claus.

I've talked with a lot of people, and when I met Dan, you, I knew that this was the man that I wanted representing Christmas here at North Pole City.

This is for you.

It's this year at North Pole City.

We decided to make Santa available a little earlier than usual.

Now I can find you, walk around and say hello to the children.

I love your hands.

I'm just trying to leave a little bit of joy, a little bit of cheer.

You guys know your hats are on backwards, okay?

He has, a love for God.

He has a love for children.

This is for you, sweetie.

You know what that says?

That says Santa loves you and you're nice.

An awful lot of my adulthood, I've done.

I've been invited to be Santa.

You know, there was a time when I was Santa with, a store bought suit, and, and I didn't have this beard, and I didn't have white hair and white beard.

I was younger, and those were things, like for office situations, but mostly for hospital or school situation, as in Santa Claus.

Yeah.

The mistletoe slide.

So in a lot of ways, I think, maybe I've just been being prepared all my life to, to to take on this responsibility for one life.

It would have been high.

How are you?

Good to see you.

Last night.

Oh.

When it comes to his love of Christ, he just has such a special heart.

He was here, an undying love to always tell people the story of the birth of Christ.

And that's one thing that makes him so special.

Why did we call the very first Christmas?

Christmas?

Do you know who was born on that day?

Yes.

Jesus.

It was Jesus birthday, wasn't it?

As we tell this story, we hope that when they've heard it, they understand that the first Christmas was the day Jesus was born and that he was God's gift to the world.

And they were three very wise men.

Have you ever heard of the three wise men or the three Kings?

Well, these and that.

That's where the tradition of gift giving really started.

On Christmas morning, after you wake up, before you open your presents, do Santa a favor.

Let's sing Baby Jesus a happy birthday song.

Can you do that?

Will you?

Okay.

Every morning, Santa enjoyed sitting in his favorite rocking chair at his city home, right smack in front of his little green house was a school bus stop.

Well, my wife and I made a decision.

A conscious decision to live here.

This is a ministry.

Mustard seed is a ministry created to work in this one area.

About 8 or 9 neighborhoods in the 73114 zip code.

My wife gay, and I, about six years ago, we both looked at, how blessed we were financially and said, you know, we we have plenty.

We have all that we need.

What we really ought to do is take anything over and above what we need and give it back to something that God would want us to give it to.

My wife decided that she was willing to move from our comfortable home in Edmond into this neighborhood, and to establish mustard seed.

So we did that, and we live now on donations.

On school days, Santa love to meet and greet the kids on their way to school.

They all loved Santa.

He was always doing good things for them.

There's anywhere from 12 to 15 kids every day who who catch the bus here.

Good good morning girls.

Good to see you get the seats and I'm trying to get to know them.

I'm trying to be out here as much as I can so I can get involved a little bit in their lives.

Social studies.

Is that hard for you?

You just don't like it.

1 in 6 kids are being raised by a grandparent because the parents aren't available, the other children who are being raised, they're being raised by a single parent, and that single parent is working very hard, usually two jobs to make ends meet on this one.

How's that?

All right.

Okay.

We've got great kids here.

They.

They study hard, they try.

We just don't want them to give up.

We don't want them to get involved in stuff that's going to direct their lives away from the success that they can be.

Bye kids.

See ya.

Second thing that we're trying to do is develop a mentoring program so that the 7000 kids in that neighborhood who could benefit from a, from a mentor will have someone, a life coach to help the mom or help the dad raise that kid.

Somebody else in their life to be important.

It's been a changing neighborhood, though, and there are so many rental houses.

A lot of people who used to own and live here, have died or moved away.

So now there's a lot more rental.

And when you have that imbalance of rental, you've got, a less stable neighborhood.

It's been coming for some time.

It's, demographics are rugged.

There are about 17,000 people who live there, about 58% poverty.

Crime is high.

Homeownership is low.

There's just lots of challenges.

down like water.

But there are also lots of assets.

There are 750 businesses in this neighborhood.

We're trying to tap into those businesses and get those business owners to, to create job opportunities for people who live right there.

Have you ever seem the rain?

coming down.

to the right.

We've worked on for two summers with two different mission groups.

These folks just moved in the beginning of the month.

Part of what we're trying to do is we're trying to increase homeownership.

This is going to be the place for me till I croak.

Good.

This is nice to see this.

I found this one.

I thought, oh, this will be a great spot for me to be a home.

So he actually helped me with my financing, help get the leases and everything going just so that I could qualify and get it.

Thank very much.

You're welcome.

You're welcome.

That's official.

Well, this is, Velma Dennis's house.

Actually, the one next door was where she was living and had a fire a couple of years ago.

So she moved in right here.

And, two summers ago, a mission group of youth came and painted her house, replaced a lot of the clapboard siding, and also built a ramp for her and so we work with seniors to help repair their homes and keep them in good shape so that they can enjoy them until, until the end of their lives.

Good morning, Velma.

Good.

Good to see you.

How are you doing?

Doing fine.

I feeling well.

I feel pretty good this morning.

Good, good.

Already had your breakfast?

Yeah, well, I'm, unable to work, and I have been disabled for, many years since he come into our life.

Well, it's been a change, and I look forward to see him when I don't see him.

As he is Santa Clause to me.

And I just loves him.

And my wife, who helped me found, mustard seed, was diagnosed with cancer two years ago and died this past spring, in March.

Her willingness to serve, her willingness to live there, her willingness to become a neighbor and to make this happen, was a great inspiration to me.

I wouldn't have done it without her.

That'll be warm.

Without her willingness.

What?

What toy would you like, a race car?

Oh, that'd be good.

What color?

Blue.

Blue.

Race car.

Let me think.

Do you like dolls?

Do you like trucks?

Christmas is an exciting time.

And?

And most of the children we see are enthusiastic and anticipating wonderful things I like.

I sword.

Sword.

As I have had children on my lap with three pages of, typewritten or or computer produced, requests and Denver cowboy hat and a sword.

And usually when I see a list that long, I just open it and I laugh and say, you don't think Santa's going to bring all this, do you?

You want a real horse or by horse?

Just like a brown one.

Okay.

And the most unusual request I had, a couple of years ago was a little girl, about seven, wanted a snake.

That's it.

There you go.

That's a girl.

And what, are you going to leave Santa?

You're going to leave me anything for a snack?

Ain't that a beer?

No.

Nothing.

You want to go with these?

I like Krispy Kreme donuts.

It.

How's it feel?

Since you heard, it doesn't hurt us.

It's soft, isn't it?

I want to know.

I want to know what a what?

Why you come at midnight?

I come when children are sleeping.

I know when I know one hour fast asleep.

Do you know why I love hearing children's stories, about themselves or about their families?

I just want $20.

$20.

Okay?

If we ask them enough questions, you'll generally get something humorous, I see.

Okay.

And why do you want $20?

It's something really special.

I do because my parents have never done anything for Christmas when they were an adult.

Really?

Well, that's nice of you to do that.

And every circumstance a child can encounter, we see that child on our lap.

We see healthy kids.

We see children who are not healthy.

We see children who aren't going to be here next year is quit breathing twice as we meet children with special needs.

But he's okay now and he has been okay a long time.

Last year here at North Pole City, in one day, I had three different sets of children who had lost a parent within the last three months.

What's your favorite dog?

I like one with red hair and green eyes.

Oh, pretty.

That's nice.

Let me see your eyes.

My main purpose with these children is to love them.

You have pretty green eyes yourself.

And I have a little moment, maybe a minute or 2 or 3 with each one to establish that love relationship and to give them that love and to make them feel good about me and about themselves and about Jesus is nice.

I love them and he gives presents to kids that are not good and.

I just love him.

On Christmas Eve, Santa sat quietly in his home, making a list of names of boys and girls from all over the world and boys and girls, there's still time.

If you're not being as good as you could, there's still time to be nice to your mom and dad and try to do that every day.

And while little boys and girls fell fast asleep, Santa brought them more than they had ever wished for.

Lots and lots of presents were left under the tree, but the most important thing Santa left was the feeling of love, hope, and the true meaning of Christmas.

Now dash away, dash away, dash away all.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night I got a night out I'm telling you I. Santa Claus is coming to town.

Oh, coming.