Here Comes Santa Claus, Powered by Helicopter : Holidays: Charter firm once again hooks up electric St. Nick for his 100-m.p.h. flights around the county.

Each year, the employees at Aspen Helicopters in Oxnard swear they have invested their last Christmas season sweating over a 900-pound, electric facsimile of Santa Claus on his sleigh.

After all, the contraption--made of chicken wire laced with colored light bulbs--requires 50 hours to assemble.

And the cost of flying it over the county--as it hangs on a cable knotted to a helicopter--can run up to $800 an hour.

But then Aspen Helicopters gets letters like this one, written by Ventura resident Tracey Mucciacito in 1990:

“Dear Sirs,” begins the letter, which the company has saved in its official scrapbook. “I’m a single mom and I worry about making Christmas special for my little girl.

“Well, last year on Christmas Eve, my little one (five years old at the time) and I had come home from a long day of work, day care and grocery shopping. As I struggled with the front door lock she was ‘star gazing.’

“I got the door open, dragged in my groceries and she came running in behind me screaming, ‘Mom! Mom! It’s Santa! It’s Santa!,’ dragging me outside . . .. Sure enough, there was Santa flying across the sky. She was SO excited.

“It absolutely made my day and Christmas Eve. Thanks for putting the magic of Christmas back into what had been a long, ordinary day. I don’t think she will ever forget seeing Santa fly. I hope we get to see you again this year.”

And so the tradition continues. By popular demand, Aspen’s Santa is scheduled to fly again tonight, circling over Ventura Harbor’s annual Parade of Lights festival for a half hour beginning at 7 p.m.

On Christmas Eve, electric Santa and his reindeer should be back, an image in red, yellow and white, soaring high above the western county from 6 to 8 p.m.

“About this time of year, every year, we think that next year we won’t do it again, that this is our last year,” said Rob Scherzinger, a pilot for the company, which spends most of the year crop-dusting and flying charter helicopter and small plane trips for private groups. “You know, it might be fun to be home one year on Christmas Eve. But every year, when it’s done, we’ve loved it.”

The practice began in 1980, the year the company opened, when another firm persuaded owner Charles McLaughlin to fly Santa around Ventura as a marketing scheme.

The idea was to find businesses that would pay a fee for the flight in exchange for an ad in a local paper saying, “Santa is being brought to you tonight by (fill in the blank),” Scherzinger explained.

The plan never caught much interest commercially. But in the process of making a few trial runs, the glimmering Santa captured so many fans that, despite some company reluctance, a local custom was born.

Now, the phones ring steadily at Aspen Helicopters as dark falls over Ventura County on Christmas Eve. From Camarillo to Ventura, residents call up demanding to know where Santa is and when he will be sweeping over their heads, Scherzinger said.

Community support also means that many of the parts that make up Santa are now donated. Camarillo Electric contributes all the wiring. Variety Lighting Supply of Ventura supplies new bulbs. Oxnard Auto Electric Co. trucks over two new generators, free, each winter.

The soaring Santa is also in demand for local festivities, circling the Channel Islands Parade of Lights last week and heading for the Ventura Harbor event tonight.

Those who look up may glimpse about 1,000 light bulbs arranged to look like a jolly Santa, his sleigh and a couple of reindeer, zipping at a clip of 100 m.p.h. across the Ventura sky.

With a reluctant grin, McLaughlin, the owner of Aspen Helicopters, admits he’s glad to be part of the merriment.

“It’s kinda fun,” he said. “Deep down inside, it’s kinda fun. But I wouldn’t let anybody know that.”

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FYI

Santa’s flight is only one of the many activities planned for this evening’s harbor festival. The event, whose theme this year is “A Country Western Christmas,” begins at 3 p.m. with country music and dancing, pony rides, a petting zoo, face painting and strolling carolers. The “Pedal Oar Paddle Parade,” featuring kayaks, rowboats, outriggers and any other human-powered vessels--strewn with lights and other decorations in honor of the season--starts at 6 p.m. The Parade of Lights itself starts at 7 p.m., when about 35 boats between 20 and 70 feet long--also strung with lights--leave from the port district headquarters, sail through the harbor channels and then head out for the Harbor Village, only to turn around and make the loop again. Santa flies from 7 to 7:30 p.m.