Santa's Visit

TOOMAN, NELSON

Posted By: June Brewer Welsch (email)
Date: 12/21/2007 at 03:38:47

St. Nick’s Christmas list included a photo with his family
From the Muscatine Iowa Journal Dec. 17, 2007
MUSCATINE, Iowa -- All this Santa Claus wanted for Christmas was his picture taken with his wife, their daughter, granddaughters and great-grandson.

Wayne Tooman got his wish Saturday morning at Community Bank, where he donned his red suit for two hours and listened to the children who perched on his lap. The bank at 615 Cedar St. in Muscatine is one of the half-dozen or so places where Tooman, 69, still sits in for Santa, which he has done for more than 30 years.

"In fact," Tooman said. "I’ve been Santa to everyone in the picture."

He was joined for a family photo by his wife, Mary Ann; their daughter, Deb Hutton; her daughters, Jessica and Erin Hutton; and Kai Keegan, Jessica’s 4-week-old son. They were all joined in another photo by Wayne Tooman’s brother and sister-in-law, Marvin and Fayonne Tooman of West Des Moines.

Marvin Tooman, a retired Air Force colonel, said he and his wife returned to Muscatine, where they both grew up, for the family portrait. "This, plus my wife’s uncle has his 80th birthday today," he said.

Wayne Tooman is a retired commercial pilot and lifetime Muscatine resident who said he managed the Muscatine airport for 31 years.

"Kiwanis," he said. "I’ve flown all over the world for them."

As each child stopped to meet Santa, Tooman sat on a sofa in front of a Christmas tree and next to a blazing fire in a fireplace within a few steps of bank tellers and customers who watched the holiday scene.

"Say ‘reindeer," he would tell each child as moms and others standing nearby shot photos. And then, Mary Ann Tooman, dressed as Mrs. Claus, would hand each child a candy cane and a pizzeria coupon.

"I’ve had as old as an 89-year-old sit on my lap and tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas," Wayne Tooman said. "It’s a reward that you get ... There is so much excitement in the air.
Note I went to school with Wayne