TUCSON — Kerry Mitchell, a TSA screener at Tucson International Airport, was putting the Santa suit back on, several hours after he’d finished his volunteer stint entertaining children passing through the airport.

“It’s cold out there,” said the smooth-faced, youngish Mitchell from behind his round spectacles as he buckled the Santa belt for at least the second time on Sunday, “and I didn’t wear a jacket.”

At 9:30 p.m., he was about to head home to Sahuarita, 30 miles east, and was digging into the large purple drawstring sack that contained all the elements of his costume, including a curly fake beard.

“Last year I let my own beard grow out and made it white,” he added.

Mitchell had come in on his day off to let kids sit in his lap and “do the whole magilla,” as he put it. “With double the passengers, it’s something for the kids to enjoy and it takes some stress off the parents.”

However busy TIA might have been earlier in the day, as the 10 o’clock hour approached, take-offs and arrivals were intermittent. In the gate area for Southwest Airlines, about two dozen passengers waited to board a flight to Las Vegas as custodial workers vacuumed and hauled away large bags of trash.

The upper level coffee bar and the Arizona Sports Grill bar had already closed for the night and the Brighton gift shop was lowering its metal security gate.

Anyone hoping to make a last minute purchase of a Tucson T-shirt, totebag or souvenir cactus was out of luck.

“We’re waiting for my brother,” said a young father who chatted amiably while sipping coffee outside the baggage claim area. “We don’t know what airline he’s on or what time he’s due in. I’m not sure he knows about the time difference.”

The brother, traveling from Vancouver, B.C., was to hook up at the Tucson airport with his sibling who had driven 800 miles from his home in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico.

“When I was single, I could have pushed through in a day,” he said. “But now with my wife and daughter and car seats and luggage, well, suffice it to say there were a fair number of stops — some for reasons that you couldn’t write about in the newspaper.”

Declining to give his name, he explained that some 16 family members were converging upon his father’s house in Tucson for the holiday because for the multi-national crowd “he’s centrally located.”  

The Tucson airport is the second largest commercial airport in Arizona and opened in 1919 as the first municipally-owned airport in the U.S. In 2006, a new passenger record was set for the third consecutive year with more than 4.2 million total arriving and departing passengers.

Each one has a story.

Cassie Pardee of Sierra Vista was due in momentarily from Hawaii where she had already begun her holidays with a trip to meet her boyfriend’s grandfather. Her mother Candyce, a deputy county attorney in Cochise County, waited comfortably for her daughter, a junior at the University of Redlands in California who will spend next semester in Baja California making the world a better place for the turtles and whales.

“Well the house is decorated,” said Pardee, “and someone I’d better not name sent me a turducken.”

A turducken is a specialty of Southern cuisine in which a chicken is stuffed into a duck which is stuffed into a turkey. They are shipped around the country (especially at holiday time) with cooking instructions.

“I’m terrified of it,” she stated pleasantly.

A hostess with no trepidations was Sue Brody of Dove Mountain, who along with husband Steve awaited the delayed-by-two-hours arrival of her 91-year-old mother from Sarasota, Fla., via Atlanta.

“She’s outlived three husbands and two boyfriends,” said Brody of her 4-foot-11-inch mom. “She plays golf and bought a new Cadillac a few years back.”

Brody planned to entertain 30 people on Monday with a variety of homemade soups, veggies, cheeses and cookies; nine were expected for Christmas dinner and a dozen guests on Wednesday.

“It’s no biggie. Just family and friends,” she said off-handedly, peering at the flight status monitor then watching yet another wave of arriving passengers descend the ramp to yelps of greetings and hugs.

“Mom’s no bigger than an 8-year-old,” she commented. “It’s a good thing she still wears stiletto heels.”

Back in the security area, Kerry Mitchell struggled to persuade his street pants to cooperate with the velvety outer Santa pants. The two fabrics insisted on sticking to each other.

“Wait,” he called out to a tired traveler trying to balance a too-heavy load. “You can’t leave yet.”

He hopped over with one Santa leg only half pulled on, reached into his purple sack and pulled out two candy canes.

“Merry Christmas,” he said.

Herald/Review reporter Cindy Skalsky can be reached at 515-4611 or cindy.skalsky@svherald.com.