By JONATHAN DUBE Staff Writer

Massey's all bouncy. He's talking a mile a minute, high-fiving the photographer he just met. Yeah, man. Yeah!

He lifts his two laughing kids onto the roof of his Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited, parked off an S.C. interstate next to a yellow deer-crossing sign. He leaps on the roof himself, takes off his black leather cowboy boots and points to the deer's nose -- red nose.

``It's our little act of civil disobedience,'' says Massey, a Columbia lawyer. ``I haven't the vaguest idea how we thought of it.''

Christmas time last year, the Masseys embarked on a crusade -- a crusade to spread the Christmas spirit.

Armed with a stack of red stickers, Massey and his kids -- Ryan, 12, and Amanda, 9 -- have brought Rudolph to the Carolinas. For the past year, they've been slapping bunches of the inch-wide circles on deer crossing signs throughout both states' roads.

``We want people to think of Christmas all year long,'' says Amanda, a fourth-grader at McKee Road Elementary School in Charlotte.

Now, everywhere they go, they take a stash of the shiny red noses with them and go deer hunting. When they spot a sign, they climb on the Jeep and make Rudolph's nose glow.

Oh, what fun!

But whatever does their mom think?

``I think it's a little dangerous, but I also know that life is an adventure, and they like to experience it,'' says Michelle Massey, Dave's ex-wife, who now lives in Charlotte with the kids. ``And when they're with their dad, they definitely experience it.''

Dave Massey's a lawyer, so he knows what he's doing is against the law. A felony, in fact, that carries up to a $1,000 fine or five years in the slammer. But he doesn't care.

``There's not a jury in South Carolina that would convict us,'' he says, laughing.

Transportation officials don't approve of the red-nosing, but they also say they won't play Scrooge.

So far the trio of bandits -- who call themselves ``The Rudolph gang'' -- have canvassed both Carolinas and Georgia. Truckers honk when they spot the bandits doing their deed.

The mysterious red noses have baffled motorists and highway troopers ever since they first appeared. Massey held his secret tightly until Monday's Observer reported the Rudolph spottings, prompting him to tell his tale.

The signs have special meaning for the kids because they leave a trail of their travels: Beech Mountain, Sugar Mountain, Myrtle Beach, Beaufort, Charleston. Ryan and Amanda even red-nosed a sign near their Charlotte home, on Tom Short Road. Now they've got their eye on a new sign to hit -- on I-485 East.

``We want people to see the signs and honk and play games and see who can spot the most noses,'' says Ryan, a seventh-grader at South Charlotte Middle School.

``I like Rudolph because he has a red shiny nose and I like deer,'' Amanda says, shyly. ``We like Christmas and we also want people to see the signs better so people don't run over as many deer as they used to.''

Perhaps, like Rudolph, the Masseys will go down in history.

``All the kids who are going to grandma's or grandpa's -- whether Christian or Jewish or Muslim -- they're all going to see the deer signs,'' Dave Massey says. ``That's the gift that Ryan and Amanda and I are giving everyone this Christmas. And may it be a merry one!''

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