It’s Christmas Eve in Otis, a one-stoplight town two hours east of Denver with 483 people, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimate.
Families gather before the 7 p.m. church service. With aunts, parents, grandparents, daughters, nephews and grandsons, houses are soon packed. And outside, the porch light is left on.
They’re all waiting for Santa and this year, just like the past 95 years, he comes.
The Otis Volunteer Fire Department takes Santa street by street, door by door, until they’ve stopped by every house in town — as well as the town of Platner, six miles west — to deliver more than a 1,000 bags of candy. With candy remaining, Santa and his team of helpers head to the town’s stop light, handing out bags to travelers on U.S. Highway 34.
“He’ll go running up to the door — and they don’t knock, they go in — and people are expecting them,” said Jerry Patterson, publisher and managing editor of the Otis Telegraph.
There are five teams of Santas and helpers. Fire department rookies, who tend to be born and raised in Otis, are assigned Santa duty.
“Most of them are pretty good,” Fire Chief Trent Alexander said. “Some of them are a little iffy.”
Sometimes parents drop off presents or leave them on the porch for Santa to bring in along with the candy, which is a mix of hard candy, chocolate, peanut clusters, gumdrops, peanuts and fruit. The Santas typically make it around town in a few hours, finishing in time for firefighters to make the evening church service.
Kids react as they typically do when seeing Santa: Some are loudly elated, others are downright terrified.
“Everybody seems to enjoy it,” said Bryant McCall, treasurer of the fire department. “We’ve never had anybody kicked out of the house or anything.”
As with any tradition that started nearly a century ago, the origin story has become murky with time.
As retired firefighter Rick Holcomb recalls it, there was an older woman in town who made candy for everyone back in the day. But on a fateful Christmas in 1922, a blizzard took control of the town. Unable to deliver the treats herself, the woman asked the firefighters to help — and they’ve been doing so ever since.
McCall said he hadn’t heard that story. The one he’s been told starts with the formation of the volunteer fire department in 1922. At the time, the chief, assistant chief and their wives wanted to do something special for the community. So they handed out stockings and candies for the kids in town. The tradition carried on from there.
Although there’s no way to know which story is true, the National Weather Service confirmed a storm on Christmas in 1922 that brought 4.5 inches of snow.
Regardless, the tradition continues to this day, creating new memories. To pay for the event, the fire department sends out letters for donations, which are returned each year with more than enough money.
“Everybody looked forward to it. It’s all everybody talks about,” Alexander said. “There’s people that drive hundreds of miles just to come and see Santa in Otis.”
