COLDWATER — Santa and Mrs. Clause walked the aisles of Meijer Thursday evening shopping, drawing wide-eyed stares from other customers, especially kids.

With a real hearty “Ho, ho, ho,” he looked over the baked goods. “I’m a cookie connoisseur and an artist because the toys take a lot of painting and design work,” he said.

When not at the North Pole, Santa hangs out at the Marble Lake home of Tom and Cindy Bland, south of Quincy.

Graduates of the famed Charles W. Howard Santa Claus School in Midland, the couple return there every early October. “Everybody goes and gets in the spirit. It’s great fun,” Santa said.

About 300 attend each year from all over the world. Tom and Cindy met a group from Denmark and the Jerusalem Santa, “who has a nice tricked-out dressed camel,” Tom said.

Santa said he and other Santas learn in different dress, costume, and makeup classes and “how to answer difficult questions from kids.”

There are voice and drama coaches. “We do a lot of singing. And we do a lot of eating cookies,” he said with a hearty laugh. 

Charles W. Howard started the school in 1937 in Albion, New York, in response to his displeasure at seeing other Santas in frayed suits, cheap beards, and shockingly inadequate knowledge of reindeer. The leadership passed down and moved to Michigan in the 1960s.

Asked when he started as Santa, Bland kept the character and answered, “A couple of thousand years now. Started in Turkey.”

Bland grew into his role. Sunburned around the lake, he let his hair and beard grow and discovered he was Santa. “The job found me. And it’s been great fun ever since.”

His red embroidered suit is an original Charles W. Howard costume.

“Mrs. Claus, she’s a lifesaver for scared children, and lining things up. She keeps the dates straight. Where we need to be,” Santa said.

The couple is a favorite at the village’s annual Quincy Lights program and appearances around Coldwater.

The couple appeared in the Coldwater Holiday parade in past years but had a conflict this year.

“We do a lot of home visits. We do some sick children visits, those kinds of things,” Santa said. The couple visits libraries and schools.

“We do the Branch Coalition Against Domestic Violence community event,” Mrs. Claus said.  

Since early November, the couple made between 50 and 100 appearances, she estimates, “pretty much every day, sometimes twice a day. So, we’re pretty busy.”

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Summer now is a busy time. More businesses are doing Christmas in July.

They belong to the Michigan Association of Professional Santas, which meets monthly socially and to train.

If you meet Santa, he’ll hand you an “I met Santa!” card. On the back, it said, “And I was caught being nice.”

— Contact Don Reid: dReid@Gannett.com. 

This article originally appeared on Coldwater Daily Reporter: Santa trains hard for holiday visits from his Marble Lake summer home