Spirit of Christmas Present : Holiday: At Rescue Mission and Newport Marriott, some give and some receive. Others observe Yuletide at beach.

Greg Giemont has spent every Christmas since 1985 at the Orange County Rescue Mission. So has Emmett Moseley.

The two men have little in common. In fact, they don’t even know each other. They just happen to be on opposite ends of the same holiday tradition.

Giemont, 38, a general contractor who lives in Fullerton, wears a blue apron as he putters around the mission, making sure everyone has enough to eat and drink. Moseley, 65, who lives in a parking lot a few blocks from the mission, smiles behind his beard and makes sure his own stomach is full.

“To see other people enjoy Christmas, it’s enjoyable to me,” said Moseley, who has been homeless for eight years, as he looked up from a plate of turkey, potatoes, veggies and stuffing. “It makes me feel good.”

That’s what brings Giemont to the mission every year too.

“It’s people’s eyes,” explained Giemont, who spends Christmas Eve with his family to keep his Christmas Day free so he can volunteer at the mission. “I love to see the eyes light up.”

About 500 pairs of eyes were lit up Saturday as poor and homeless people from the Santa Ana neighborhood surrounding the mission filtered through for a hot meal and left with gifts in hand. Single men reeling from last year’s layoffs mingled with young immigrant families and street veterans such as Moseley.

“It’s kind of depressing without your parents and without your brothers and sisters,” said John Marocco, 25, who came to California on vacation from Florida several years ago and never went back.

Marocco lost his job at a hotel last September. Now he lives at a local shelter.

“I never thought I would be” in a soup kitchen for Christmas, he mused, full from his abundant dinner. “But I’m glad it’s here so I can be.”

This was also the first Christmas volunteering at the mission for Laura Brown and her family. They have always spent the holidays with Brown’s mother-in-law, but she died this year. So they wanted to “share (Christmas) with someone else,” Brown explained.

“You know how it is in California--sometimes it seems that everyone has everything,” said Brown, who lives with her husband and two young children in Mission Viejo. “We wanted our kids to see that some people don’t even have a hot meal.”

It worked.

“I feel kind of strange. I’ve never been around here before,” said 11-year-old Eric, gazing wide-eyed around the room. “Now I know that I shouldn’t be (complaining) about how many toys some other kid has. I’m lucky I have any.”

Elsewhere in Orange County, people celebrated with old and new Christmas traditions.

About 110 elderly residents from Leisure World in Laguna Hills and the Santa Ana Senior Citizens Center were treated to a lush dinner at the Newport Beach Marriott, courtesy of the local chapter of Volunteers of America.

Most of those bused in for dinner would otherwise have spent Christmas alone in their homes; at the Marriott, they reminisced about Christmases past and hummed along with the piano and mandolin music.

At the Newport Pier, hundreds of locals and tourists frolicked in the bright sunshine, celebrating Southern California-style.

There was the painter from Boston, who sneaked away from a family dinner to perch his easel on the coast and dabble at capturing the landscape on canvas. There was the kid from Montana, kicking a Hacky Sack with his grandmother.

There were two blond brothers from Newport Beach, ages 10 and 12, trying out the surfboards and wet suits Santa had just brought. And there was the woman in a Santa hat who has walked this beach every Christmas for two decades.

“We just have to be at the beach, that’s part of the day,” said Nancy Farmer, a Santa Ana Heights resident, who wore red pants, a green shirt, a beaded Saint Nick pin and gold harp earrings garnished with green and red ribbons to match her furry hat.

“You’re never going to see diamonds that are as beautiful as the sun sparkling on the water right there,” Farmer said, pointing at the calm Pacific. “This is something we couldn’t pass up.”