NORTH HOLLYWOOD : Caroling Truck to Continue Tradition

Nobody walks in L. A. Not even carolers.

The caroling truck that has become an institution in North Hollywood and Toluca Lake will roll through its merry rounds tonight, as it has for 11 years.

“It all started from having nothing to do on Christmas Eve,” said Rick Day, one of the event organizers.

Day and a group of workers at a now-defunct sound studio decided to pack some public-address equipment into the back of a dump truck and hit the road.

“Just because of how much fun it was, it’s grown to 200 (carolers),” said Day, who works at a publishing company in North Hollywood.

The truck, likewise, has grown. Carolers now elaborately decorate a 45-foot flatbed truck with a sleigh, chimneys, and about 4,500 watts worth of sound and lights.

More than 30 people will crowd onto the flatbed and the rest will swarm around it, passing out candy canes and cookies for seven hours on a 10-mile meandering route.

“It’s practically a parade,” Day said.

The truck stays on side streets, where it doesn’t interfere with traffic. Merry-makers never have released an itinerary, though residents seldom have trouble finding the truck.

“You just have to listen,” Day said.

The truck will roll out at about 5 p.m. from the vicinity of Bellflower Avenue and Blix Street, and stay on side streets centered around Camarillo Street between Tujunga and Clybourne avenues. Festivities wrap up by about midnight.

Numerous residents plan their evening festivities around the truck, Day said.

“You have people in their pajamas outside, people on roofs, you see people holding phones out so relatives can hear.”