300 Santas Converge On Branson, Mo For Convention

[matcom]

<snip>

BRANSON, Mo. — At 5 a.m., Jim Trubey leans toward the bathroom mirror, working white clown makeup into his beard with a toothbrush. The fluorescent light makes his face look pale and worried, not jolly at all.

"I hear bells in the hallway," says his wife, Jill, who has traveled with him from their home in St. Petersburg. Jill opens the door of their hotel room. Sure enough, jingling echoes through the fourth-floor corridor.

Jim, 59, keeps his eyes on the mirror. His beard is now the color of new-fallen snow. But he's examining his temples, where his hair is obstinately dark.

"Did I get those places enough?" he asks Jill.

Jim puts on the red velvet pants and the red velvet coat. He sits down on the bed to pull on his boots, spit-polished the way he learned in the Coast Guard. He loops a wide leather belt around his middle.

"All right," he says. "We're sweating."

It's July. The day will only get hotter.

Jill dabs rouge onto Jim's cheeks and nose. She reaches up and fits the red hat onto his head, like a crown. Then she feeds him a mint.

"I'm Santa," Jim says.

http://sptimes.com/2006/07/23/Floridian/Santa_s_workshops.shtml