With holiday gift pressure mounting at the North Pole, why is Santa Claus spending so much time in Merced?

He's everywhere it seems — collecting gifts for the Human Services Agency on M Street, having breakfast with cops, firemen and kids at the Mall and drawing hundreds of screaming fans at the Christmas Parade on Main Street.

What gives?

Is it the foreclosure crisis that has hit this area hard? Is it our poverty crisis? Or — on a more positive note — are we just the coolest, welcoming hometown in America?

"I get around, I have to admit," Santa told the Times in an exclusive interview as he pranced around town. "But this town has to be one of my favorite places."

Santa was on hand at the 2008 Holiday Gift Drive at the County Administration Building, helping Human Services Agency elves collect toys. The drive collected toys and gifts for disadvantaged children and teens in the area. They say they will still accept gifts through Dec. 24 at the HSA main office, located at 2115 West Wardrobe Avenue in Merced. Call 385-3000, ext. 5285 for more information.

"There's a much bigger need this year," Santa said at the event. "We helped some 600 kids last year, but this year we are looking at 800 to 1,000. The economy, of course, is making things harder. But people may not realize that some are struggling to just have food on the table."

Plenty of children and their parents were fed at the Breakfast With Santa organized by the city's police and fire departments at the Sweet River restaurant inside the Merced Mall.

Proceeds from the event helped fund the Cops and Fire For Kids gift drive. This week our local heroes will be buying gifts from Mall businesses and then handing them out to hundreds of preregistered families at the South Police Station on Saturday, Dec. 13.

The Breakfast With Santa event has been held since the early 1980s. Just ask Larry Fisher of the Merced Fire Department. He's been helping to organize the event for 22 years.

"We used to flip hot cakes right out on the open floor of the Mall," he said.

Of course, Santa has always been there too.

For the Saturday morning breakfast, he was bracing his knee for countless children and listening to dreams of Xboxes, High School Musical II videos and Barbie dolls.

"Of course they ask for those things," Santa said. "But what really sticks with me is when they ask for something for a parent. When they say, 'please bring happiness to my mom so she won't be so sad. Please get my dad a job. Please give us a warm house to live in.' That's what really warms my heart."

Santa almost showed a tear as he said this, but there seemed to be to much to do as he turned back to the kids.

And, of course, there was the Christmas Parade downtown.

Riding atop a massive city fire engine on early Saturday evening, Santa rounded up the parade and was mobbed by hundreds of kids. He helped with the annual tree lighting in Bob Heart Square and drank hot chocolate and ate cookies with the kids afterward.

And then like that — he was gone.
Probably off to some other event, some other town, some other gathering of people waiting to be cheered up.

SANTA BOX

ATWATER
Santa will be around the classic airplanes at the Castle Air Museum's Christmas Plane Lane, 5050, Santa Fe Drive. Kids are sure to find him from 6 to 9 p.m., Friday Saturday and Sunday and Dec. 17-22. There will be hot cocoa ant the Flight of Fancy Cafe. Entrance fee is $3, but the fee is waived for those who bring toiletries for the troops.