Firefighters keep holiday tradition alive

Santa is getting ready for his ride around Jacksboro on the Jacksboro Fire Department’s 1946 Seagraves pumper truck. He and the firemen enjoy trying to visit everyone in Jacksboro on Christmas Eve handing out stockings filled with candy, fruit and nuts. 

The fire department gave 3,661 stockings last year to those who visited Santa on the streets of Jacksboro.

“We have a lot of people that travel from far away to see it every year,” Fireman Jason Jennings said. “It’s a pretty special thing that doesn’t happen in many places, nowhere that I know of really.”

A lot goes into pulling Santa’s visit off each year. In addition to the approximately $6,000 in costs for stockings and stuffers, an army of volunteers appears at the Masonic Hall each year on the eve before Christmas Eve to fill the thousands of stockings.

“That’s just firemen and their family and friends and people that have been involved in it in the past,” Jennings said. “We’ve had people show up that we have no connection, they just show up and want to help. It’s a fun time. We’re always able to do it really quickly. We do it in about two hours, stuff all of those.”

Donations to help fund the project are always welcome and can be mailed to: Jacksboro Volunteer Fire Department, PO Box 312, Jacksboro, TX 76458.

To read the complete article, see the Dec. 8 edition of the Jacksboro Herald-Gazette.