I grew up in New Jersey, and every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, in the evening, the local fire department would drive a fire truck very slowly through all the neighborhoods in town, sirens intermittently wailing to attract attention, with Santa Claus sitting on the back waving. I think that it stopped sometimes, but I definitely remember it going through the neighborhoods. It’s not a parade or anything, just Santa coming to see the local children and letting the local kids see him.
A number of years ago, I moved to Maryland, and the same thing happens here; in fact, the truck just ran through my neighborhood yesterday evening. My questions:
Does anyone know where/when this tradition originated? Is it purely a mid-Atlantic states thing, or is it more wide-spread? Does the same thing (or a similar thing) happen in Canada or overseas? And I’m kinda guessing that this doesn’t happen in bigger cities – or does it (I’m excluding definite parades here, more interested in the sort of semi-ad-hoc-yet-traditional effort this seems to be)?
Beats me how the tradition started; my station did it this past Saturday. I was the elf with the candy, not the Jolly One. Bummer.
FTR: I live in NE NC.
The fire department where I grew up in Indiana also did Santa, but they set up a camper on the courthouse square and had Santa inside to meet the kids.
I have nothing on the origin of this tradition for you but here are links to a few more threads that were started in the past concerning Santa firemen. It seems that this is a fairly common tradition in many Jersey towns.
Hunh … I swear I did a subject search before I posted. I guess I typo’d :smack: ?? Thanks for taking the time to find the prior threads for me.
Okay, at least I know that there aren’t Santa-suited firemen stalking me around the East Coast Hopefully someone else will check in later with origins, and maybe we can get a little more idea of the spread.
Crap. You’d think I’d be able to answer this one, being a FF and all. The oldest guys in the department just remember doing it when they first joined ~ 40 years ago. It’s done out here in the boonies, and it was done in Levittown, PA when I lived there, too.
The retired cop who plays Santa told me he has to laugh when he sees some little kid at a stop and realizes that he locked up mom and/or dad on a previous occasion.
WAG- Most firemen outside of big towns are volunteer. These tend to be the guys who are active at church, schools, and other civic groups. This seems like a great idea to make little kids smile, go out and hang in the city square, and get to honk the horn of the big shiny fire engine all at the same time.
I don’t know if there is any specific origin in it, it just seems like a natural progression.
Just to give you a data point: I’ve lived in Mississippi for 40+ years and never heard of this. Now, many times Santa rides the fire truck in the Christmas Parade (and is the last vehicle in the parade) but I’ve never seen a FD drive around neighborhoods with Santa.
Welcome, fejr!
My volunteer firehouse has done Santa Rides for at least 30 years. I know it’s not done all over the country, but it is pretty wide-spread.
Most of the firehouses around here (Baltimore area) do it, and have done it for many years.
Hopefully someone else will check in later with origins, and maybe we can get a little more idea of the spread.