Wesley Worrel has the eye twinkle, a little belly and the patience for dealing with an onslaught of small children.

Not sure if he’s the real Santa?

Just give his luxurious, white beard a little tug.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, he’s been all over Oak Harbor spreading Christmas cheer. He visited seniors at a retirement community as well as women and children at a shelter who escaped domestic abuse.

Last week he doled out oranges to school children as part of the Kiwanis Santa Orange Project. For decades, Kiwanis has made sure young Oak Harbor school children form a lovely memory of Santa.

“The best part is the expression on those kids’ faces when you walk into their classrooms,” Worrel said. “Their eyes go big, their mouths drop open.”

And the kids — they go WILD.

As part of his cross-town tour, Santa stopped by Crescent Harbor Elementary. Every classroom, the kids mobbed him. They ran headlong into his arms. They hugged him, patted his suit, touched his beard. They squeaked out their most desired Christmas gifts.

“They come running at 90 mph to give you a hug,” he said. “I don’t know anything more rewarding than that.”

Wesley Worrel grew up on a farm in Kansas, part of a large extended family. He didn’t receive much in the way of presents at Christmas and he never saw Santa.

But he remembers love.

“I didn’t worry about presents, but when I got one I was tickled to get it,” he said.

This is a man who has worked hard his entire life.

At age 9 he was plowing fields. He earned his driver’s license at age 14. By high school, he was driving a school bus and spending his summer breaks harvesting at farms in Texas. He joined the Air Force, and after getting out he worked in a mill and later as a middle school custodian in California.

It’s at that job when he first got roped into donning the suit. When one of those children came back years later and showed him a picture she’d kept with him — that made an impression.

He moved to Oak Harbor in 2004 to be closer to two of his children and his grandchildren. He and his wife just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

At age 73, he’s running his own business, DW Landscape Maintenance. One of his grandchildren, now in high school, has special needs and Worrel wanted him to be self-sufficient after graduation. His grandson works for him, learning the business.

Becoming Santa doesn’t take much preparation for Worrel, who simply pulls on the suit. Over the years, he’s learned the right answers to sometimes difficult questions from children.

The children tell him what they’d like, but he never promises.

“I say, ‘We’ll see what I can do,’” he said. “Mom is usually there when they tell me what they want.”

When they ask for “that new electronic stuff,” Santa reminds kids they don’t make iPhones in the North Pole.

But they do apparently grow oranges there. Last week, Santa told the kids Rudolph helped pick them at the North Pole grove.

Then there are the more difficult, existential questions — why can’t daddy be home for Christmas — that sort of thing.

“I tell them Santa has no control over that,” he said.

“We hope it works out.”

If kids want to know why there are Santas everywhere, well, that’s an easy one.

“These are all my helpers,” he tells kids. “We want to make sure people know what people want for Christmas.”

If children aren’t sure if he’s real, he invites them to feel his beard.

“There is nothing more rewarding than to see the joy on their faces.”