Meet the real Santa and one of his Elves. And they don't live in the North Pole. Much closer. Right in Boulevard Park.

The big guy is Tim Frei and the elf is Grady Olsen.

They are a couple of talented guys who not only deliver toys, they make them.

Well, Tim does but the Elf does hand painted greeting cards.

Both are from Boise Valley in Idaho, retired, and they keep busy making things that make kids happy.

Tim has played Santa scores of times if you are looking for the real thing, not some stand-in. He has the genuine fake clothes and a genuine fake white beard.

They can be reached at t.frei@comcast.net.

A horse was made for me for Christmas last year. By Mike Robinson, age 64.

It replaces an ashtray he made for me in 1947 that had a horse's head on it. The head kept falling off whenever I banged my pipe on it.

I told him many times it had a design flaw, so 50 years later he replaced it with a new one that had a different design flaw. The clay refused to harden so each time I picked it up from my workbench my hand stuck to it.

It also had a horse's head on it and it kept sagging till the horse's nose wore off. I told him without a nose it smelled bad, so last year he made me this new one with better stuff and it dried nicely.

Ken Robinson's Kenmobile erved as Christmas gift for Dad 55 years ago. Needs wash job and new steering wheel. Otherwise mint condition. Found in back of workshop cabinet. Value, priceless.