WHERE'S SANTA? ON THE HOLIDAY OF LIGHTS TOUR

This weekend's tour of Cape Girardeau holiday decorations will provide an opportunity to look for someone every mother's child is trying to spy this time of year.

Chances are Santa Claus might pop up unexpectedly during the Holiday of Lights Search for Santa Bus Tour beginning tonight and continuing Saturday night.

The tours leave from the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau office at 100 Broadway at 7 both nights. The cost is $1 per person.

Homes, businesses, a church, a hospital and the Missouri Veterans Home were chosen to receive decoration awards this year from the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce Beautification Committee.

Tom and LaDena Nelson have been decorating their house and yard at 1810 Montgomery since moving in 15 years ago. This is their third decoration award. The Nelsons get their grown children involved and each year devise a different theme.

One year the Nelsons had a patriotic theme with red, white and blue lights. "We had military people call us up and thank us," Tom said. Another year they decorated the front yard like a 1950s diner.

This year, mannequins representing a younger version of the Nelsons appear out front decorating a Christmas tree.

Thousands of lights play into the theme "Lighten up."

"It's just what Tom stands for," LaDena said.

In the backyard, clothesline is strung with colored lights that on the west pole spell out "Merry Christmas."

The Nelsons actually took the last few years off from decorating but bounced back this year. "Everybody asked, Are you going to decorate the house," LaDena said. "It's a tradition. People are disappointed if they come by 1810 and they don't see it decorated."

They start working on the display a month before pulling the switch. Tom is a perfectionist. One year as they were leaving the house all dressed up for a Christmas party, Tom saw some burned out lights on the roof. Up he went, suit and all.

"Every day when you turn them on, you ask, Is everything working," he says.

All-out decorating for Christmas is a family tradition. "My father is 70 and lives in Florida and he still gets on his roof to put up lights," he said.

The Nelsons' decorations inspired Patricia and Raymond Pulliam one block away at 1831 College. The Pulliams now have won an award five or six years in a row.

They began working on their display the weekend before Thanksgiving. Monday night's winds blew down one of the cables carrying electricity to the Pulliams' display but they expected to have the lights back on at least by tonight's tour.

Penguins, angels, and the prominently displayed words "Peace," "Love," "Hope" and "Joy" await viewers.

Raymond's sister, Marlene Golden, also is a Holiday of Lights decoration winner.

The Pulliams and their children, Raymond Jr., 14, Bradley, 8, and Staci, 5, all help put the decorations up. They like other people looking at their decorations and they like looking at them themselves.

"I like to come around the corner and say, That's my house," Patricia said.

AND THE WINNERS ARE

Section 1

Angela & David Kaelin, 3115 Vail Drive

Victoria & James Frank, 3524 Mallard Drive

Missouri Veterans Home, 2400 Veterans Memorial Drive

Section 2

Betty & John Sims, 1909 Drury Lane

Marlene Golden, 1848 Thilenius

Southeast Missouri Hospital, 1707 Lacey St.

Section 3

Amy & Ray Yager, 2129 Yorktown

Beverly & Steve Boren, 1547 Princeton

No commercial winner

Section 4

Dorothea & Jerry Worley, 1005 Wolf Lane

Maryjo and Richard Dirnberger, 3602 Julie Drive

Union Planters Bank, 101 S. Mount Auburn Road

Section 5

Rhonda & Charles Seabaugh, 115 Hilldale Circle

Good Shepherd Lutheran Chapel, 1904 W. Cape Rock Drive

Section 6

Nina & David Marshall, 319 E. Cape Rock Drive

Evelyn & Eugene Kasten, 1517 Price

No commercial winner

Section 7

LaDena & Tom Nelson, 1810 Montgomery

Patricia & Raymond Pulliam, 1831 College

Hutson Furniture, 21 S. Main St.