The “Santa Truck”, the “Ho Ho Truck”, the “Moving Christmas Card”, etc. has been driving around Grangeville for about 30 years now! How did it all get started? Bob Beckman gave some history on it and how it began.
“The truck started back in the 1990’s. We were at a fireman meeting and after the meeting a few of the guys thought of putting lights on the truck and driving it around town.” After driving it around town with just the lights on it, the Chief fireman at the time, got numerous calls from community members saying how much they loved it. He said, “D*****, you guys created a monster!” Because he knew at that point it was going to be something big!
Guys from the Correctional Center called the fire station and offered to do framework on it. A generator and speaker were eventually put on the truck to add music. Community members donated gas money, Les Schwab helped put new tires on it and various businesses donated lights to make it what it is today!
Local firemen decorate the truck a couple days after thanksgiving to have it all ready for the holiday season. “There is a calendar up at the fire station where the firemen can sign up a certain day they want to drive the truck. If there is ever a day where no one is signed up to drive it, people quickly chime in that they will do it. It shows how much pride we have in the truck and how much it means to the community.”
The truck drives around town starting the first of December. “We go out around 5:30 and try to be done at 8:30 on weekdays because the kids have school. It is so much fun to drive around and watch all the kids run to the window to see the Santa Truck. There will be kids who will just jump out of the bath tub and run outside naked just to wave to Santa sitting on top of the truck. Sometimes people will call us and say ‘This is my grandma’s last Christmas, can you guys stop by around a certain time and drive real slow so she can get to the window?’ And we do that for people sometimes.”
The truck used to go to many different towns on the prairie. “We would drive through Cottonwood and Greencreek and sometimes through Whitebird. One larger town even offered to put the truck on a trailer and haul it around, that was Lewiston. We declined the offer because this is a Grangeville tradition. We wanted it to stay local.”
“One time I remember we were driving it around the prairie and we didn’t get back to the station until 11pm. The truck doesn’t have a heater so by that time it was 12 below, it can get quite cold. The worst is going out in the rain or wind, but it’s worth it.”
“I went to one of Grangeville’s graduations and in the valedictorian’s speech she said the one thing that she will never forget growing up in Grangeville is the Santa Truck driving around town at Christmas time. Just like the lights in the Grangeville park, the Santa Truck will always be part of our community’s tradition. I can absolutely say that this is the most enjoyable thing that I have done in my life.”
The decorations are taken off the firetruck after the first of the year and the truck gets stored. The memories we get from the firetruck warm our hearts and help make Christmas in our small town a little bit more meaningful. 🙂
