Guerrilla Santa Gives Fire Station Taste of the ’12 Days of Christmas’

The guerrilla Santa Claus of Inglewood strikes when it gets dark.

This year, the recipients of his (or her) furtive generosity are the 36 firefighters of Fire Station 1 in downtown Inglewood.

The modus operandi follows the song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” except that the gifts have been edible, rather than maids a-milking or lords a-leaping.

On Dec. 13, someone left a package outside the door of the station, rang the night bell and disappeared. The package contained one pound of chocolate candies and a note that read, “On the first day of Christmas, someone gave to the boys at Fire Station 1 . . . a box of chocolate candies.”

Each Day

The gifts have appeared each day since, left in back of the station or by the front roll-up doors during the evening or late afternoon. The list so far includes: two half-gallons of ice cream, three pies, four boxes of Christmas cookies, five kinds of baked desserts, two six-inch cakes and seven bags of popcorn.

The firefighters do not know their benefactor. They suspect a group effort, possibly a neighborhood block club.

“Sometimes they knock,” Fire Capt. Paul Morgan said. “Sometimes they ring the bell. Once we got a phone call from a little kid saying to look outside.”

Handwritten and typed notes on green or white file cards accompany each package, some with stickers depicting festive cartoon bears. They describe each gift and its relationship to the number of days of Christmas, as in the song. For example, the note on the sixth day pointed out that the two round cakes were six inches in diameter.

The traditional twelve days of Christmas actually run from Dec. 26 to Jan. 6, but the men of Station 1 are not going to quibble.

Second Year

“It’s great,” said Firefighter Jerry O’Hagan, who said this is the second year of mystery gifts in Inglewood.

Last year, someone showered Fire Station 3 on 12 nights. One night, five taco dinners were left there after a phone call instructing the men not to cook dinner.

“They were really sneaky last year,” O’Hagan said. “Station 3 is smaller, and at night we sit in an area right by the back door. We’d jump up when we heard something, but they’d be gone.”

Firefighter Mike Kearns said he had heard that a block club was involved in last year’s gift-giving, but no one knows for sure.

The firefighters cannot accept gratuities, but food is another thing, Kearns said. They have left a Christmas card for their mysterious friend or friends.

“We don’t want to catch them,” O’Hagan said. “We just want to say thank you.”