The Quad City Arts Festival of Trees is less than two weeks away and while thousands of volunteers were busy getting things ready for the holiday event, it appeared that a Grinch had stolen their Christmas.

On Monday, a life-sized Santa was missing.  It was supposed to be the fixture that greeted people outside of the Davenport RiverCenter for the Festival of Trees.

“I said somebody stole Christmas,” Mike Peppers said jokingly.

Peppers, known in the Quad Cities as Santa himself, donated the decoration. It's one of hundreds from his collection.

“He's a red guy with a big white beard and a big belt. He's got a toy bag on front of him,” Peppers explained.

Peppers doesn't have a picture, but the missing Santa may stick out. He's plastic and lights up. He’s from the 1950's and is about six feet tall.

Don Lewis has been volunteering with Festival of Trees for 17 years. He's the one who set Santa in its place and discovered the decoration was gone. In all of his time, he says this is a first.

“I just think it was an act of something to do and mischief. I don't know if you want to call it vandalism, but that's what it really is,” Lewis said.

Both Lewis and Peppers said it's not too late to be good. While some might give the thief a lump of coal, they just want Santa back. They even came up with a reward, offering free tickets to the Festival of Trees.

Late Monday afternoon they got their wish.  Santa had been found.  As it turns out, a wedding was held at the RiverCenter over the weekend.  The bridal party asked that Santa be removed just for their event.