Pasadena Jaycees

Who: Santa, Ms Claus, Elves, and Reindeers (You, you and you!)
What: Operation Santa. It’s Santa’s workshop! Santa’s teams will be checking their lists, finding out who has been naughty or nice (guess what — all of them have been angels), organizing toys, loading their sleds, and giving out gifts.
— Your sled (car) will be PACKED with toys. Keep that in mind when building your team. We originally started out with a team of 6 in 1 car. That will NOT work out. We eventually divided and conquered. We ended up with a team of 3 — Santa, Ms. Claus, & an Elf (driver). We still could barely fit in my Xterra with all the bags of toys.
— Pack extra toys. More than likely you will see random kids around the neighborhood. They will get excited. They will ask for toys. Be prepared Santa — you are magical and you knew this was going to happen.
— Smile! Get ready for pictures with the family.
— Tamales anyone? Some families will feed you. Accept graciously — your elves will get hungry.
When: This volunteer event will take up your entire Christmas Eve. We were there from 10am-9:30pm with occasional breaks in between.
Where: The route will consist of 13 – 25 houses in the Pasadena and Altadena areas. This was our first year so they provided us a «beginner» route of 13 houses on a 10 block vicinity.
Why: The tamales duh. I really have to give a shout out to the Pasadena Jaycees for creating such a great event. The experience was so fulfilling, personable, and fun. You will catch yourself in the middle of it all already planning to volunteer for the years ahead.

Was invited by some good ol’ Unilocalers to this event. (Vinh and Judy!!)
WARNING: It is not a show up and volunteer event; sweat and blood will be needed for success.
The skinny: Operation Santa began in 1934, and has been organized by the Pasadena Jaycees since 1994. Toys are gathered and then distributed to variety of houses across the Pasadena area on Christmas Eve by Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus!
Here’s the rundown:
11am — show up to get your Santa route
11 to 1pm — rearrange your toys based on the letters that kids write to Santa
2pm — drive your route (yes, it’s definitely recommended)
4pm — transform into Mr and Mrs Claus
4:30pm — return to the temple and are fed burgers, hot dogs, and cookies, cookies, COOKIES!
5pm — get on your sled to start the delivery
9pm — return to the temple to drop off left over toys, and outfits
10pm — grab a drink and relish about everything we have and how lucky we are.
Tips:
— Team of four works well: Mr Claus, Mrs. Claus, an Elf, and a driver.
— pack extra toys for random kid encounters
— read the letters at dinner
— bring a flashlight
— show up to the OP letter reading to help set up!