Spirit of Giving : Homeless: Destitute families line up overnight in cold and rain for mission gifts. The wait pays off in toys, hats, blankets.

They began lining up at 2 a.m., in bitter cold and pouring rain, hundreds of homeless and needy families whose only chance of a merry Christmas comes from the charity of strangers.

Nothing could dissuade them, neither the dreary weather nor the car that swerved out of control on the rain-slick street and plowed into the line.

Though everyone was shaken, no one was seriously injured and no one considered surrendering their place in line.

Scantily clad children, some wearing T-shirts and sandals, kept warm by stamping their feet and imagining the mountains of toys inside. Grown-ups, meanwhile, chain-smoked cigarettes and dreamed of more practical presents, like blankets and wool hats.

By dawn, the ever-growing line stretched down the block and around the Orange County Rescue Mission, site of California’s largest Christmas present giveaway.

Some blamed the county’s bankruptcy for the record turnout of more than 12,000 people; others chalked it up to chance.

But everyone insisted that Saturday was a fitting conclusion to a year in which the mission saw nearly 60% more men and women walking in the front door.

“Nobody gives out 14,000 gifts,” said mission spokesman Jim Palmer, who added that 500 volunteers worked two days straight, sorting and wrapping every item donated by Disneyland and other local businesses.

Like the rain, wrapping paper often fell in sheets upon the sidewalk.

Tumbling through the exit, many impatient families held Christmas morning right there on the wet pavement, tearing at their packages and shouting with glee.

“You got a Barbie, you got a Barbie!” cried one little girl, watching her sister open her Christmas present.

The shouting quickly gave way to pouting, however, when the little girl discovered that she had gotten a tiny set of Tinkerbell nail polish bottles.

She doesn’t like nail polish, the family groaned.

Most gifts got a cheerier reception.

“A lot of people don’t understand,” said Teresa Flores, who brought her 3-year-old daughter, Jasmin, to the mission in the middle of the night. “This helps.”

Without the mission, Flores said, Christmas would be a bleak and empty affair.

That was why she arrived at 4:30 a.m., and that was why she remained so diligent about shooing away every intruder who dared cut in front of her.

“Oh, we chased them off,” she said proudly.

Once inside the mission, families became saucer-eyed: Smiling volunteers stood behind a 30-foot-long table piled high with stacks and stacks of brightly wrapped packages.

If this was a godsend for the parents, it was Santa’s workshop come to life for the children, who stared in open-mouthed wonder.

Before individual gifts were handed out, each family received a winter blanket.

Then came warm hats for the children, who pulled the flaps down over their cold cheeks and rewarded the volunteers with ear-to-ear smiles.

Next in the Christmas assembly line was a wrapped gift for each parent--though most families were led by just one young mother.

Finally, at the end of the line, toys awaited the youngest toddlers, many of whom went almost catatonic at the sight of a box or ball swathed in brightly colored paper--just for them.

“One person, one wrapped gift” was the mission policy, which caused volunteers and visitors some anguish. Many families insisted a sibling or parent was home sick, but mission officials said they simply couldn’t give handfuls of gifts to each family.

Juan Rugio, 14, was typical. He traveled from Anaheim to the mission, then waited in line for many hours, with no one to talk to.

Eager to get a gift for himself, of course, the boy also hoped against hope that he might be able to get something for his mother.

Told that each person would receive only one gift, however, he smiled uncertainly and looked away.

Still, few complained.

“We went in sad,” said Monica Bustamente, who arrived at 4 a.m. and didn’t reach the front of the line until seven hours later. “But we came out happy.”