Puppeteers bring Christmas to life

OREM — Everywhere Mark Pulham goes and in everything he does, it seem puppets pop up: In high school, at BYU, on his LDS mission and in the elementary school classroom.

At 56, he's just now noticing a theme.

"Now that I think about it, for Christmas one year, I got a set of puppets. Maybe that was the start for me," Pulham said. "I remember watching Shari Lewis and Lambchop on TV. I've just always been interested in puppets."

Pulham is putting on the kick-off show for the SCERA's new push for puppetry. He'll be telling the story of "The Magic Glasses" with the help of two of his puppets, Paige Turner and Al Reed.

"I do this thing where I find these great old glasses and I pick them up and put them on. I can look around with them and see who's naughty and nice, and that's how Santa finds his helpers," Pulham said. "I talk about Mikey and the Me-Me monster who wants everything for Christmas. I include an adaptation of Scrooge and a story called 'Don't Forget the Baby.'"

Pulham believes puppets can teach lessons that sometimes hit home better than lessons from parents and teachers.

Pulham often used his collection of puppets to teach his fourth-graders at Westmore and Aspen elementary schools before he retired. He's performed on a regular basis at the Orem City Library and at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival.

"Puppetry speaks where you can't speak yourself," he said.

His classroom didn't have an aide, so he produced one from the closet.

"She was our student teacher. The kids loved it and she could scold them and tell them what to do without anybody getting unhappy."

He encouraged his students to create their own puppets and puppet shows.

"Kids will open up, express themselves through puppets," he said.

At BYU, he devised a puppet show for another student and ended up filling in as the puppeteer with "Bookworm."

On his mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he put together a puppet and used it often to introduce various concepts of the gospel.