FARMER CITY - His long, white beard is real. His snowy hair, resting on his shoulders, is real.

His real, red velveteen suit was custom-made for him. He wears white gloves and glasses and a Santa hat.

He knows, however, that he's not the "real" Santa Claus.

But he is real for the many children who have sat on Tom Tucker's lap over the last 20 or so years, including the youngsters at Easter Seals of Central Illinois, none of whom cried during their visit with Santa at a party this year.

The lanky former teacher and athlete creates Santa Claus for children in the area, especially those in DeWitt and Macon counties.

Maybe it was the beard that got him started.

Tucker, now 71, said he grew his first beard as a student at what is now Illinois State University following a stint in the Army.

But it was hard to be an athlete with a beard, so it disappeared until 1971, when he grew one for a Blue Mound centennial event.

That Christmas was when he created his role as Santa for the students at the former Woodrow Wilson Junior High School. And how did he get the dark, curly beard - something his wife liked - to become white?

"Oh, I helped him," said Illene Tucker, his wife of 50-plus years.

"We used a whole bottle of white shoe polish on it," he remembered.

It wasn't, however, until 1984 that Illene Tucker presented him with his Santa suit to wear in celebration of their first grandchild's Christmas.

"I'm still wearing that suit," he said.

Tom Tucker retired from teaching in 1993 but let his beard grow longer and took even more bookings as Santa Claus. And now his granddaughter, Amber Giles, is his official beard and hair stylist.

"For the last four or five years, I probably have had 20 gigs," he said, mostly in DeWitt County.

But the final one every year is in Decatur at the home of a friend, Joe Aman, always on Christmas Eve.

As he talks with the children, Tucker's norm is to ask them to give him a couple of choices of what they want for Christmas. Then he tells them, "Old Santa will try his best." But he also expects the children to give their best, and he lets them know that.

And why does Tom Tucker take on the Santa role?

"I don't know who gets more excited, me or the kids," he admitted. "They are so enthused."

Illene Tucker, however, knows why he continues.

"It's all of the smiling faces, the happy children," she said.

Arlene Mannlein can be reached at amannlein@herald-review.com or at 421-6976.