Santa spreads joy to children and adults alike

A quiet milestone passed earlier this month at the tree lighting and luminaria celebration in Streamwood.

Santa Claus returned to meet with children and their families, just as he done every year. Only this visit turned out to be special.

Jeff Curtis, a Bartlett resident, donned his red velvet suit, with its big brass buttons down the front, and matching fur-lined cape. With his real white beard, trimmed and curled for the occasion, he looked every bit the nostalgic jolly old elf that children envision.

Turns out, he is carrying on a tradition started 50 years ago, back in 1958 in Streamwood by his father, Art Curtis, who played the role for local families until 2000, when his son assumed the part.

While his father started out greeting neighborhood children in his cul-de-sac, and eventually headlining the pancake breakfast hosted by the Streamwood Park District, and the St. Nicholas celebration hosted by the Streamwood Historical Society at Hoosier Grove Park, his son has taken it to new heights.

This year, he appeared with the Elgin Symphony during its Holiday Showcase concert at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, and he also returned to headline the Chicago Thanksgiving Day Parade down State Street.

But it is the local events he enjoys most, he said, and seeing the same children and their families, year after year.

For most of them, he arrives with his wife, Carolyn, dressed as Mrs. Claus, much like his mother, Irene, had done all those years. At the tree-lighting ceremony, they drew families to line up in the council chambers for the opportunity to meet them, while Streamwood High School choir members sang holiday carols.

"I love playing the role," Curtis said. "I love bringing fun to everyone."

Curtis loves it so much, that he wears red most of the time, and therefore likened to the real Santa wherever he goes, even when he vacations in Hawaii, where he wears red swimming trunks.

"People stop me all the time," Curtis says. "You live the part. You can't wear red all the time, and have a white beard, and not love the part."

Most of what Curtis loves, he says, is seeing the good in the children he greets. He says he can count on one hand the "bad kids" that have come across his lap in the last seven years.

There's something about telling their wish list to Santa that brings out the best in them, he figures.

He even draws adults to tell them their holiday wishes. Cherish Walsh of Streamwood describes how for the last two years she had asked Santa for a new baby, and at the tree-lighting ceremony she declared that he had listened.

Walsh and her husband, Brian, and older son, Tyler Gray, posed with Santa for a Christmas card photo, with their twin daughters, 7-month-old Lindsey and Chelsea.

Yes, they said, Santa had remembered her requests, both times, and delivered.