The Gift of Giving : For Carson Youngsters, a Real-Life Santa Makes Wishes Come True

When Alfredo Garnica was a young boy, living in a poor household where food was scarce and luxuries nonexistent, Christmas meant men in Santa suits dropping by the neighborhood to deliver gifts and take the children to charities for turkey dinners.

Charity or not, he never forgot the taste of the food and the exhilaration of tearing open the gifts. And that’s why Garnica--now 37 and a successful restaurateur--plays Santa for Towne Elementary School in Carson.

Most of the year, he simply provides tutors for the 600 pupils. But for the past three Christmases he has donned the itchy beard and heavy red suit and made the rounds himself, a 6-foot-1 Santa delivering small white bags of hazelnuts, candies and homemade cookies.

And that’s only the start.

He asks the principal for the names of three most needy children, then listens with extra care as they mumble their wish lists. This year, the list included a pink Barbie Jeep for Sarah and radio-controlled cars for Jose and Bob, all 6 years old.

Then Garnica went off to the mall.

Today, he will don the red suit again and visit the three children’s homes, not only with the toys for the kids, but with turkey, ham and candies for their families.

“It is a wonderful feeling to see a kid’s face light up when they get what they need or want. It reminds me of myself,” Garnica said, “when I was a child.”

Born in Gardena to Mexican immigrants, he was the eldest of eight children. His father was absent, however, and his mother relied on welfare to raise the family.

During the holidays, they would line up for free dinners at a poker parlor.

At age 10, he began helping support the family by delivering newspapers.

As a teen-ager, he held a number of odd jobs, hoping to someday open a restaurant, relishing the atmosphere created by people gathering for a good time. After graduating from Gardena High School in 1975, he went to work at Hennessey Taverna in Redondo Beach, where he learned the business.

In 1986, Garnica’s dream of owning a restaurant came true. With money he had saved and a bank loan, he opened the California Grill and Bar in Hawthorne. In 1990, he opened a second one in Carson.

“He is not wealthy by California standards, but he has enough to share with others,” said his best friend, Salvador Robles, a maintenance supervisor at an aerospace company.

Garnica’s special project is the school three miles from his Carson restaurant, in a working-class area with a large immigrant population.

He pays $500 per month to supply tutors. At the end of the school year, he and his employees hold a barbecue for the school.

“He is an unusual person,” said Carson Mayor Michael I. Mitoma. “Unlike others, he does not only donate money, but he also donates his own time. He goes out there and cooks the kids hamburgers and hot dogs himself.”

Said Garnica: “As human beings we have to take action.”

And then there’s Christmas.

This year he and some friends--dressed as Barney and Baby Bop--visited the school for three hours, handing out the bags of goodies and handling an occasional thorny question.

“They have the flu,” he replied when a little girl asked where the reindeer were, “but don’t worry--they will be fine by Christmas.”

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The weekend after his visit, Garnica roamed about the mall toy store, buying four radio-controlled cars for Jose and Bob, and a horse, Barbie Jeep, and Ken doll smartly dressed in a black and white shirt for Sarah.

“They are going to get a kick out of this,” Garnica said.

Still, playing Santa did not go without a hitch. When he told Sarah’s mother about his plans, she thanked him--then wondered whether he wouldn’t mind giving the gifts instead to some friends who were recently evicted from their home.

So Garnica went back to the mall and bought gifts for the friends, too.

What did Carson’s Santa covet for himself for Christmas? Every Otis Redding compact disc.

“You know,” he said as headed for the mall exit, “I love that song, ‘The Dock of the Bay.’ It goes something like this: ‘Sittin’ in the morning sun, I’ll be sittin’ when the morning come . . .’ ”

As he stepped from the mall with his bag of gifts, into a very golden morning, Santa kept on singing.