The Whimsical Whittler
Reported by Erik Smith
Web produced by Rachel L. Miller

One of the wood creations from Vaughn and Stephanie.

It certainly doesn't look much like the North Pole. You won't find any reindeer out in the backyard, and there aren't any elves around either, just two of Santa's helpers hard at work, getting ready for another Christmas.

Christmas comes about 300 days a year in the house in Mason, about 80 miles north of Detroit. Then turn left into some heavy woods, and you'll probably find them right out there in the shop, carving or painting away on one of their boss' likenesses.

Santa with his reindeer.

You see, Vaughn and Stephanie Rawson probably know as much about Santa Claus as anybody on this earth, because they live with him.

"Producing Santa, it has such a generally good feeling to almost all people, it's certainly most people's favorite time or favorite day, and for us it lasts virtually all year," Stephanie says.

The pair works on a wooden Santa.

Vaughn calls himself the "Whimsical Whittler." He's he made almost every stick of furniture and trim in his house, and it was a few years ago he carved his first likeness of Santa Claus.

He didn't think much of that one, so he made another, and he made another, and another. And then Santa Claus changed his life.

Another carved Santa.

"One of the keys to woodcarving is you have to see the figure in the basic flat block of wood, and then you're just working away to try to release that," he says.

Santa Claus has made some pretty tough decisions for them. Vaughn and Stephanie once had good jobs with the state with pension plans, health insurance, job security, that kind of stuff. But Santa whispered in their ears one day and they quit the real world, jumped on the back of Santa's magic sleigh and just took off.

"It was an opportunity to do something totally different, and we seized the opportunity, so to speak," Vaughn says.

"We really knew we wanted to do something different in our 40s," Stephanie adds.

Vaughn carves a Santa.

"I think when it's all said and done that probably your most interesting or perhaps the best thing that happened in my life was that I got to be a full-time woodcarver," Vaughn says.

If their hands stay busy, they may complete about 500 Santas from one Christmas to the next. They're collector's items now.

Most of them are sold even before their design has been dreamed up. They're so famous, the White House asked for one to hang on the National Christmas Tree.

A Rossen creation appeares above Bill's shoulder on the Clintons' Christmas Tree.

"I have a picture of Bill and Hillary standing in front of the tree with our moon right over Bill's shoulder," Stephanie says.

Right after the holidays, Santa's Michigan helpers usually take a little break to do the pole chores, but it's not very long before they're back in the woodshop getting Santa in shape for still another season that will probably come all too quickly.

Through the window of their workshop, you can see Stephanie painting a Santa.

"It's sort of interesting, as the holidays roll by, you know, Easter, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, it's still Christmas here," Stephanie says.

You could probably say if anybody really knows how to keep the spirit of Christmas in their hearts every day of the year, they truly do because each and every day is Christmas day at the Rossen's house.

For more information on the Rawsons' business and how to contact them, click here.

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