26th Annual 'Santa Ride-A-Long' Arrives In Riverside

RIVERSIDE, CA — Santa Claus will join Riverside Fire Department crews to spread cheer throughout neighborhoods citywide, starting Monday and continuing until just before Christmas, riding aboard a fire engine and making periodic stops to take photos with kids and distribute candy canes.

The 26th annual "Santa Ride-A-Long" is set to get underway at 6 p.m. Monday, running for two hours. It will continue nightly during the same hours through Thursday, and then resume from Dec. 19 to Dec. 21, ending at a different park each night.

Firefighters Association Local 1067 organizes the events every December, with the goal of taking Old St. Nick to every corner of the city.

"The fire engine will travel slowly through the neighborhoods with lights and siren sounding and stopping in specific areas along the route," Battalion Chief Bruce Vanderhorst said. "Fire engines will remain in service and `Santa' will respond with the unit if they get an emergency call for service."

Occasionally, Santa will be in the engineer's seat, and other times atop the fire engine, waving as he and the crews make their rounds.

A complete list of the parks at which Kris Kringle will be stopping can be found at https://riversideca.gov/fire/.

Organizers said that Santa is expected to hand out about 4,000 candy canes.

Even during the COVID lockdowns in 2020, Santa made the rounds.