His Christmas Spirit Extends Year-Round

Is your Christmas spirit as stale as last year’s fruitcake? Are you beginning to think that maybe Scrooge wasn’t such a bad guy after all? Well, there’s a man in Anaheim Hills who just might rekindle your yule attitude.

Bob Exum, 68, knows what the true holiday spirit is all about. He lives it--not just during the holidays but all year.

For the past 20 years, he has created unique holiday greeting cards that he and his wife of 49 years, Bonnie, send to friends, family and associates.

What makes these cards special is that each one is delicately hand-painted, taking up to two hours to complete, and personalized for the recipient. No two cards are exactly alike. Someone in Iowa may open his mailbox to find that his 18th-Century farmhouse has been captured on the envelope containing the holiday greeting. An old friend’s Colorado mountain cabin, dusted with snow, may be set against a starry sky of midnight blue.

The task of sending out more than 100 cards every Christmas should be an avocation, perhaps, of a man with a carefree life and plenty of time on his hands.

But such is not the case. Bob and Bonnie Exum have worked together for the past 12 years as sales representatives for Foremost Recreation Vehicles in Stanton. And life has been anything but carefree.

In 1977, their 21-year-old son was murdered.

Six months ago, their youngest daughter languished for eight weeks in intensive care and nearly died, the result of a rare blood infection.

Two months ago, Exum was found to have cancer. He receives daily radiation treatments.

Any one of these tragedies might cause the average person to lose faith, but not Bob Exum. Most of his life has been devoted to the service of others. Twenty-five years ago, while living in Woodland Hills, the longtime Kiwanis Club member founded “Operation We Care.”

The San Fernando-based organization still collects and distributes clothing and Christmas toys to the needy, including the Supai and Navajo Indian tribes near the Grand Canyon. Exum is no longer physically able to endure the annual trek to Arizona, but in the past, he would go dressed like a clown. “ ‘Clarabelle the Clown,’ we call him,” says Bonnie Exum. “Santa” piloted the helicopter that provided the only access to the remote area, where Exum and company entertained children who had never seen balloon animals, clown makeup or Santa Claus.

This self-appointed bearer of glad tidings has often taken his act on the road--to Childrens Hospital of Orange County and Orangewood Children’s home--entertaining children, often painting their faces to match his own clown face.

Lynn Logan, Exum’s oldest daughter, believes that her father sees only the positive side of life. “He is actually in denial of all the ugliness of the world. Where you or I might focus on the darkness, he sees only light.”

Bonnie Exum says her husband “accepts what life sends his way and tries to make the best from it.”

Exum offers the simplest explanation: “I love people, I always have. Life is an adventure, that’s what my cards try to say. There’s a story in every card, a place visited or dreamed of, landscapes that have endured the test of time.”

The self-taught artist paints on the outside envelope, risking it to the wear and tear en route, because, he says, “I like to think that a few more people will enjoy them before they reach their final destination.”

What originally inspired him to create his own cards? He recalls a cold night in San Francisco. “During World War II, I was stationed in San Francisco, far from home and very much alone. I stood waiting at the station for the A-train that would take me back to the base.” He recalls that a group of carolers began serenading him. “That simple act of kindness lifted me out of my loneliness. Those carolers never knew the enormous difference they made in a young soldier’s life. I guess I’ve just been trying to give that feeling back ever since.”