Santa On A Firetruck 2016

Santa on a Firetruck is one of our favorite traditions in our little town. It's been going on for almost as long as we've lived here, I think. The town gets somebody to dress as Santa and ride around town with bags of saltwater taffy that he throws out to the kids. The best part is that he comes right to your house like the real Santa. You don't have to go to the mall and wait in line or anything like that. You just have to listen for the firetruck siren, and head out to the street when you hear it.

It's such a small thing, but my kids have always loved it. I have pictures of them waiting out for the firetruck from as far back as 2009.

Here's 2012:

2013:

2014:

And, last year, 2015:

We've basically never missed it.

Santa came around again this weekend, and I captured these shots of the event:

Sorry, they're not great, but they were the only ones I had that weren't face reveals for my kids, and you know that I don't do that. In that middle picture you can see the bags of taffy flying down through the air toward the kids.

This is supposedly Santa's last year trying to pass in front of everyone's house in the whole town. Things have gotten too big around here, and it's just too difficult for Santa to ride a firetruck past everyone's house in one morning. Apparently, firetrucks don't have the time defying abilities of his reindeer and sleigh. My wife read somewhere that starting next year, he'll only be going down a set route of the bigger streets in each neighborhood, and it'll be up to the kids to make sure they're waiting there for him when he passes. That'll suck, because it can be awfully cold...as you can see from some of the snow covered pictures of past years.

But beyond that, this may be our last year seeing Santa on a firetruck at all. There's the distinct possibility that we may move to the Houston, Texas area. Because of that chance, my wife found herself on the verge of tears as Santa passed us and threw out the bags of salt water taffy that he brings each year. Our family all loves our home town, and we'll miss the traditions, like this one, that we've lived for all these years. The nostalgia is already starting to strike. Hopefully, if we do in fact move away, our new town will have its share of interesting holiday traditions. And, if it doesn't, maybe we can convince them to send Santa around on a firetruck like we do here.