Every once in a while, when the weather is nice and no snow is on the road, Santa Claus roars around town on his motorcycle.

Yes, his motorcycle.

Dressed in a full Santa suit, this Santa helper stops at various places around town visiting with residents and handing out candy.

It’s just another way for Keith Alm, a 70-year-old Austin resident, to give back to the community.

“One day it was awful nice, and I put on the Santa suit and rode around town, giving out candy to the kids,” Keith said. “I was doing it for the past four or five years.”

Keith acts as Santa for various places around town, helping Santa by talking with children and finding out what they want for Christmas. He and his wife, Jan, could be the real Santa and Mrs. Claus, though Keith won’t admit to anything.

“I definitely don’t lie to children,” he said. “When they ask me, ‘Are you the real Santa?’ I say to them, ‘What do you think?’ They always say, “Yeah, I think you are!’”

Alm hasn’t always displayed his magical, festive side, however. He didn’t even buy his Honda VTX until he was 60 years old. But the man known as Santa found himself intrigued with the concept in 2006.

“I let my beard grow one day, and it was white,” he said.

The way Jan tells it, Keith was working out of town and came back with a story of how someone asked him if he was Santa Claus. From there, Keith found a Santa suit online.

“He got it and put it on and said, ‘I do believe there is a Mrs. Claus,’” Jan said.

“I ordered the dress at the same time,” Keith added with a smile.

From there, Keith decided to do Santa’s work, appearing around town and spreading joy to children everywhere. He appears to be booked solid, as he and his wife have appeared at places like Holiday Ford, Pizza Ranch, and other places helping Santa out by visiting with children. He even stopped by Woodson Kindergarten Center a few weeks ago.

“Do you know how many children are at Woodson?” he said. “About 430. And they all wanted to hug Santa. Which was fine, I guess.”

When he isn’t helping Santa or dragging his wife into fun activities, Keith puts more than a few miles on his motorcycle. He traveled to Texas in February for a few weeks with a couple friends, and their escapades put on about 1,700 miles on Keith’s Honda. In all, Keith said he traveled about 12,000 to 13,000 miles in 2013.

But when the winter comes, it’s time to help Santa. The Alms have gone to churches, businesses, schools, community centers — just about everywhere in Mower County, according to Jan.

“It’s all by word of mouth,” she said.

For Keith, the holidays are a time to have fun at work — though he acknowledges this time of year is “the season of the birth of Jesus.”

“That you have to look at too,” he said.

Still, Keith takes great pride in helping spread a little magic around Austin in the fall and winter, and maybe getting more busy as it gets closer to Christmas Eve.

“People ask me to do stuff, and I like to do that for kids,” he said.