... Bringing Christmas Miracles vCora Van Olson Dale and Terri Thunker, of Yankton, have four children who are married and have children of their own — nine so far. Forty one years ago when their children were little, the Thunkers thought it would be fun for Dale to do a Santa suit and “visit” his children as Santa each year. “What happened is, it was a family thing and we were at Terri’s parents’ house for some reason, I was kind of playing with the Santa Claus role,” Dale Thunker said. “Terri worked at a local store in Norfolk, JCPenney, so we bought a (Santa) suit and thought, ‘OK. We’ll go after it and have some fun.” And they did have fun with it, though the suit did not last. “It sat in our closet for two or three years and we said, ‘The suit is looking kind of grubby,” Thunker said. “So I said, if we’re going to continue having fun with this thing, I think we’re going to need to get a different suit; so we purchased a (new) suit in 1988 or 1990.” “And I remember we ordered it from JCPenney’s — and it’s gorgeous,” Terri Thunker said. ”It’s red velvet and it was $350, and that was a lot of money for us, but it still looks awesome.” Up until that point, Thunker had only been playing Santa for his children, but, as his wife put it, “He has a love of children,” so the couple offered a visit from “Santa” to a couple of close friends and their children. Thunker has been playing Santa every year since for family and friends. “So we started going to our friend’s house, to their kids, our kids’ friends,” he said. “We started seeing them at the early ages of say, five to nine, and follow them all the way through. And now that we’ve been doing this for 41 years, now we are doing the second generation.” But it isn’t always easy having a secret identity. “My voice, it’s disk jockey voice, so it’s a voice the kids recognize,” Dale said. “Recently, I went to my grandson’s daycare, and I walk in and I said, ‘Hi kids!’ and one little girl said, ‘Santa Claus!” She must’ve caught me at Beadle School (as Santa Claus). So that’s the crazy thing, I’ve got to watch what I say sometimes. That went over my grandson’s head and I changed the subject.” It’s not that Thunker doesn’t want people to know, he just wants children to believe it’s Santa — at least while they are young. “That’s my biggest fear. I don’t want my grandkids to know that it is me until they are at least of (a certain) age,” he said. “Because if you don’t believe, you don’t receive.” To avoid being recognized, Thunker has learned to do a drop by, rather than an in-house visit, once the children are a little older. vSANTA continued on page 12 HISVOICEvNOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018v11