This Santa makes house calls

Santa Claus may answer to children all over the world, but he has a special place in his global schedule for Schaumburg.

Even in these increasingly busy times, Santa still strives to maintain that personal touch by making early December house calls to local families who request him soon enough.

For these lucky boys and girls, there are no long lines in crowded malls but rather the chance to make their Christmas requests to Santa in the comfort of their own living rooms -- for a $17 fee.

The Schaumburg Park District and its employees have worked to arrange these visits from Old St. Nick for the last dozen years or so.

This year's visits -- about 60 in all -- occurred last Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.

Three park district workers took on the task of helping Santa reach all these families in time.

Superintendent of Recreation Vince Kennedy has donned the red suit and made Santa house calls for years.

"It's always fun and a surprise for the kids," he said. "What the parents enjoy is having Santa in their own home for photos and the like."

For several families, these visits have become part of their Christmas tradition, completely replacing other means of contacting Santa by letter, phone or at the mall.

For the park district's own project coordinator, Kippy Shadel, the visits have been part of her family's Christmas celebration since her 12-year-old son, Matt, was a baby. Now things are starting all over again with her 16-month-old son, Andrew.

Shadel's always stressed to Matt, though, that it isn't common for Santa to visit houses so far in advance of Christmas, and encouraged him not to brag about it to friends and classmates.

Stacy Crook, who's also been hiring Santa to visit her four children the last few years, has a particular way of handling the discrepancy.

"My husband told them that their mother wrote (Santa) a letter very early to arrange it," she said.

While the family has come to enjoy the home visits very much, she admitted that what won them over in the first place was the practicality of not having to keep track of all the kids and worry about breakdowns at the mall.

Kennedy said the program was first called "Santa's Calling," and involved arranging phone calls to kids from Santa. After a while, though, the park district decided to step it up to actual visits.

After so many years of being part of the program, Kennedy's most memorable visit revolved not around a child's surprise but his own.

The parents at this particular house asked if it would be all right if the kids held their pets during the visit. Imagining puppies or kittens, he agreed.

"They come out of this side room with two snakes," Kennedy said. "I can tell you, Santa was sweating pretty good on that one."