Making Spirits Bright? It’s in His Claus

Despite the colds, despite the crying, despite the sticky little candy cane fingers, Jim Behmerwohld has been impersonating St. Nicholas and making children smile for more than 40 years.

“It’s fun, and when you do it for kids, it has a good meaning,” said Behmerwohld, 74, who wears black cowboy boots with his furry red-and-white costume.

The holiday season keeps Behmerwohld and his 74-year-old wife, Louise, a.k.a. Mrs. Claus, very busy. Sometimes they do four parties in one day.

The Behmerwohlds most recently ho-ho-hoed at the San Clemente Boys and Girls Club Christmas party and the San Juan Capistrano employees Christmas party. They also worked on a boat in Balboa and have visited hundreds of schoolchildren in North County.

Jim started playing the merry old fellow in the late 1950s at the Shell Oil Co. near Long Beach, where he was a foreman and the head of the activities association. Later, he worked for Standard Brand Paints for 23 years. For a while, he dressed up for the Elks Club and visited orphanages. More recently, he passed out toys to children in the Toys for Tots program in South County.

The Behmerwohlds, 24-year San Clemente residents, also help out their community by working part time at the Rose, a thrift store for the homeless in the city. But it’s the Santa gig that Jim always enjoys.

Well, almost always.

“It’s hard to see when you’re driving with the hair and the beard on,” he said. “It’s always fun, but the suit is so hot!”

Having his wife of 52 years along for the merrymaking adds to the fun.

“The children are not afraid of her,” Jim said of Louise, who has been playing Mrs. Claus for 10 years. Once, a little girl sat on her lap for hours and didn’t want to leave.

At the Boys and Girls Club party, Jim asked each child what he or she wanted for Christmas and then asked the big question: “Have you been good?” He often followed up with “How good?” as he held out his hands for measurement. Some children were 2 inches good, some 2 feet.

“He’s a natural,” said Cody Chaplin, senior recreation leader for the city of San Juan Capistrano. “We always feel good about sending him.”