The first time I had heard of this is when a firetruck festooned with x-mas decorations and firemen whirled around the block as I was walking around Indian Harbour Beach FL, blasting “So this is Christmas” or some other similar song. I don’t remember if they were giving away goodies or not, but I assume they were.
Same here, for the Montclair neighborhood in Prince William County. The kids look forward to this all year.
The commuter train line (Virginia Railway Express) I ride does something like this every year and apparently it sells out pretty quickly. Santa walks the length of the train talking with the kids and handing out candy, stickers and small toys.
Oddly enough, they did it on a regularly scheduled commuter train this year so the cars were all a mix of kids and parents there to see Santa and regular commuter train passengers. (I don’t know if they do it that way every year or not.) They did, at least, have the foresight to do it on the midday train that’s usually mostly empty so as not to complicate the already heavy rush hour.
Christmas 1999.
Ormond Beach, Florida.
I was single and living in an upstairs flat above 2 businesses (closed for the holiday) accross the street from the ocean (A1A, Oceanshore Blvd.) It’s about 8 a.m. I wake up after a night of partying with friends, make a cup of coffee, and go wander out onto my balcony. Christmas morning and I have nowhere to be until noon. It’s extremely foggy, the ocean is very calm, and it’s eerily quiet out. No traffic either direction on A1A. No neighbors outside.
Then, coming up the side street to the left of me I see flashing red lights through the fog. No sirens. A big red firetruck comes creeping quietly out of the fog and takes a right onto A1A directly in front of me. As it passes, not more than 25 yards away from me, there he is. Santa Clause on top of the truck eye-level with me and not a soul around. He just rolls on by without a word just staring and waving at me.
I’m still in shock standing there in jeans without a shirt holding my coffee so all I can do is just wave back. And a half second later he disappears into the fog and it was dead quiet again.
I just stood there for 5 minutes thinking “what the hell did I drink last night?”
It was probably one of the most surreal things that I’ve ever seen.
Wow. I had forgotten about this. Growing up on Long Island, yes, this was a yearly tradition in my town.
In my town, you can buy a gift for your kid(s) and drop it off at the Rec Center, and at some point before Christmas, Santa will come by on a fire truck and drop it off at your house.
They didn’t have that when I was young enough to get “gifted” in such a manner, but the guy across the street was a fireman, and I always thought his daughter got this special visit because of his job.
They’ve done it in my town in NJ for decades. It’s not part of a parade, just one evening. They have an advance truck about a block ahead so that at houses where kiddies reside they can be prepared to come out & get a small present of some sort.
They do this in the UK but not usually on a fire truck. In my town it was organised by the Roundtable Society who brought Santa round the streets in a truck decked out to look like a sleigh. Helpers would knock on all the doors in the street to collect money for charity. My next door neighbour was a member of the Roundtable so Santa would always stop off for a sherry. Major heart failure from excitement would be experienced by us youngsters as a result.
We always knew the santa’s in the shop grottoes were fake, but this was the Real Thing.
It’s pretty common here as well. Santa rides the fire truck through various neighborhoods in the late afternoon.
We had the CP Holiday Train come through this year. I couldn’t seem to find any actual pictures of it though.
This was an annual tradition in the town when I grew up, except Santa himself tossed the candy from atop the firetruck to the throngs of kiddies down below, lining the streets of our quaint New England town.
They do it in my corner of Jersey.
On Saturday night I just happened to have two borrowed children with me when I heard the wail of the siren making the rounds. It was fun to go running after the fire engine with a child in my arms to get a candy cane from one of the firemen. That’s one of life’s joys that we miss when our kids become teenagers.
Santa arrives in a fire truck.