Blue Santa, Making Christmas Brighter in Georgetown

When we returned to Texas a few years ago, I’d never heard of Blue Santa.  Could there really be a “Blue Santa?”   As it turns out there was, and is.  Blue Santa is an annual holiday effort by local police departments and their helpers to make the season brighter for families who might otherwise go without.  Georgetown, Texas has had a Blue Santa program for several years, conducted jointly by the Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association with help from the Georgetown Police folks.  I attended the group’s distribution to families on Saturday morning.  This year, 700 Georgetown families received over 1800 gift boxes.  There were plenty of volunteers to help out, among them policemen like a lively hula-hooping Sgt. Erik Grasse, who was there with his family to help.  And of course, an actual Blue Santa was there to see kids, like the one-year-old experiencing her first wide-eyed Christmas.   And two siblings, one named Lyric, 5, and  his brother, Loyal, 10.    The county sheriffs department here also conducts their own program, called, appropriately, “Brown Santa.”  It’s all good.