It's *** special time of year to be together and to love one another to gather together. We come together and we make it special and look back on our favorite family traditions. It's *** time when we work together as families and in our busy lives. That's hard to do tonight. All the cheer. It brings the block closer together, anticipation and celebration from seasons past *** KCR *** three special NorCal holiday memories. Thank you for joining us for another holiday memory. Special. Looking back on some of our favorite local stories and traditions. I'm Lambert and I'm going to do, we're gonna have stories from across the years here in Northern California and in Sacramento. Back in the year 2000, there were some Children waiting very patiently for *** very special parade appearance. You can call it *** waiting gate. I can't wait sweet torture for such sweet faces. All waiting for that one magical person to make his way down. Anticipation avenue. The wait for Christmas is draining enough on their patients. So imagine how difficult it is to be six and hold out for Santa through an entire holiday parade. Sure. There were plenty of distractions to pass the time, mix in some idle chatter. That would be pretty hard to. But another minute goes by. That feels like an eternity and still no sign of the man of the hour. Better brush up on our spotting skills. Um, he has, uh, oh, he's gonna have *** hat on *** red hat. And what we're going to say when we finally see him, maybe if we just stretch our necks *** little further, the parade marched on and the bands played on, some were fed up, others just finally gave up. But for those die hard Saint Nick fans who believed that all good things come to those who wait and wait. Finally, Santa, should we tell them? They have to wait another year to see him again in Sacramento Bianca Solar is on KCR three reports. Now to 2010, an important part of the parade of lights in Lodi was almost missing. Yeah. But luckily *** little miracle happened just in time for the big event. Watch the magic of Christmas. It's the parade of lights in Lodi. Thousands lined the streets for this Christmas tradition. It's very important. I mean, it's *** small community, everybody together, it's great. It was *** good time for everybody. An important part of this tradition was almost ruined. The town Christmas tree had to be rushed into place just before the parade, not one, not two but four different trees, four different trees. It's like I don't know what was going on. The first three Christmas trees, organizers tried to have trucked in were ruined. The first was vandalized, the second fell apart and the third broke when it was cut down. We have continued through this whole ordeal to just say we're keeping the faith. We're keeping the faith *** little faith and *** call for help in the Christmas spirit. People responded was good. We made it no mishaps on the way down the tree was donated. We knew there would be *** tree here. We just knew it. We knew some people would come together, something was going to come together and there was going to be *** tree while there wasn't enough time to fully decorate it. It may be the best tree yet. Believe it or not. Organizers say it's the first time the town tree has had *** star. I look up at that star and it's like, oh, yeah. So just in time for the holiday parade now in the coming days, the tree will be fully decorated for the rest of the holiday season in Lodi, I'm Richard Chub KCR *** 319. And of course, we know that ice skating an important part of the holidays for so many people here in downtown Sacramento. Back in 1991 the city kicked off winter fest with some family fun on the rink with the flip of *** switch, the colors of Christmas light up the night Sky Sacramento's Winter fest has officially begun. The starring attraction old Saint Nick. Is my brother on the bad list or is he on your good list? What's his name? Anthony? After putting in request with Santa Claus, many youngsters headed for the downtown ice rink. Oh, you are? Oh, stop. You have to admire such determination. How many times have you fallen down? Oh, didn't count. Is it worth it all? Yeah. Is that how you keep your balance feet in? Right. Yeah. Others showed *** bit more balance in grace. But the men here won't stand to be upstaged. Not when they've mastered the art. How do you keep your, oh my. I believe I do. It's pretty easy to. But then again, it may be the toddlers who are the most confident when venturing out on the ice. Yeah, they don't have as far to fall. So, yeah, easier to try it when you're *** toddler also. You know, you look back and, you know, there were *** couple regional ice rinks for the season back in the day, but so many cities are creating their own and their own kind of sense of community. You know what I like about that video is you can notice no one was cheating with those chair things that we all use. Now. That's what I would use or? Yeah. That's right. That's exactly. And learn when you're *** toddler. Well, next we have *** look at lighting the way for Santa's sleigh. That's right. We're gonna dial this back to 2006 when kids were lighting the way with luminaries. While others were heading out to Christmas services surrounded by sand in white paper bags. Young kids aren't racing against time trying to line the streets with luminaries before dusk. It's like runway for Santa Claus. It's not just *** runway for the big guy. It's *** chance for Children and neighbors to get together, share the holiday spirit by decorating the street instead of just their homes, regardless of how busy we are cooking and doing different things. We stop and we come together and we make it special so everyone can enjoy it as darkness falls, 3000 candles are lit one click at *** time and the neighborhood is transformed. Shirley Duke is the fuel behind the fire. Hoping this event grow bigger each year. She explains why some coming together some humanness, some love of mankind and to see the children's faces and to watch the adults with tears running down their face, the candles last well into the night acting as *** runway for Santa's Sleigh at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in downtown Sacramento. Thousands take in Christmas mass. The start of *** new hope and delight and family is always family. It's *** spiritual event that for some families is *** Christmas tradition of the highest importance. This is *** day of Thanksgiving and remembering of the birth of our Jesus Christ, the Savior. Beautiful to see. Still love the luminaries too. It's just so nice. Well, coming up, uh, right after this, we're gonna have the latest on tech ahead of the holidays. We are taking you back to the eighties where San Francisco had all the hottest gadgets. We'll show you the most popular gifts and we want to welcome you back to our KCR *** three special NorCal holiday memories. Of course, the holidays can always make people feel nostalgic and it's the perfect excuse to look back at some of the popular gifts of the past. In this next segment, we're taking you back to 1985. Call it *** rush toward *** second childhood or *** nostalgic trip back to simpler times. Adult toys are really moving this Christmas. It makes for an interesting gift list. Your five year old wants eighties technology in *** talking animated bear named Teddy Rockin. Your husband wants *** barking dog. The nine year old wants *** battalion of transformers robots and Voltron. Your husband wants *** wind up to the 12 year old wants *** personal computer with color graphics, high ticket and high tech dad wants *** bathtub toy. And so Christmas morning dad might find *** fully operating fire boat or this frog with *** healthy appetite for fish and speaking of fish food. How about *** serving of wind up sushi? Mm Some toys just seem better suited for adults. These trolls and Gumby and Pokey were around in the sixties and when finances have mom up *** river, she can turn to the Humphrey. The Whale Bank. *** child might not appreciate that. Given the wide selection of adult toys available, you're bound to find one that's *** real hit in Sacramento. The always young Barry Brown for channel three reports. Wow. *** personal computer with color graphics. Wow. I would, you had to pay extra for that. I sure they did. Well, in 2011, even the animals were getting into the Christmas spirit. Yeah, absolutely. The Sacramento Zoo wrapping gifts for both the visitors and animals alike. They're so human like they may not know Christmas, but apparently they're looking at him and fighting over him just like kids. They know presents at the Sacramento Zoo today, Chimps orangutans and Red River hogs got treats, raw vegetables that were boxed and wrapped and hidden in stockings. This activity is called it. And that's the real gift to these animals. It means when you put something unfamiliar in their environment that they have to discover and explore. It brings out the same instincts in them that they experience in the wild such as for through something, be able to pull things down or move around or look in *** different way. The difference between gift giving here and in the world of people, we apparently need no help getting in touch with our animal instinct. So what if you opened up your stocking and you got like an onion like that. Orangutan just did. What would you think? I would give it to my cousin Brandon and he would just eat it raw. The animals do seem to have some inkling that tis better to give than to receive. They gave these crowds. There's one back there. He's hiding the gift of watching it all in Sacramento shot in the Shams KCR *** three reports. Yeah, I didn't get onion, but I do distinctly remember getting one of those long net sock stockings full of fruit and nuts. And were you that excited or did you give it to your cousin? I might have been *** little less than excited for that. But anyway, well, you know what, back in 1998 Santa took *** break from delivering gifts and actually decided to stand up for his elves in court as you'll see the real reason behind this case highlights the holiday spirit. Please introduce yourself and your clients for the Santa Claus filing *** lawsuit. It must be the nineties today. Santa Claus appears before this court on behalf of elves whose rights have been savagely and callously denied by the defendant ghost, the defendant, the ghost of Christmas past accused in this legal complaint of forcing elves to wear ugly little elf outfits. They feel rather silly like this all year round your honor. Mr G has every right under section 421 of the little people's haberdashery in this court, all evidence is admissible and Santa has the rap sheet on everyone at the top of the list here who has been naughty number one. Was this the ghost of Christmas past? I was shocked. Another sign. This was no ordinary trial. The list of witnesses and Santa Mrs Claus Carol. But before most could testify, *** settlement came in lots of lawsuits, clothes donated by lawyers. The real reason for this trial to publicize the county clothes closet program will be used to dress people on welfare who are now starting to look for work. We do *** transformation. Another clause of the settlement candy for all and *** candy for you and one for you. I have to be fair and impartial but Santa knew he had it in the bag when the plaintiff is. Santa Justice is always sweet in Sacramento, Edie Lambert channel three reports and really *** fun way to generate those clothes for people who needed it. I love that. It was 1998. So you're like what? 10 years old? I was 10 years old. That story. Yeah, I absolutely love to see that. All right. Well, we'll see when we come back. We're gonna jump in the time machine. Take you back to 1983 gonna head out to the bay area where they were, where they were checking out the latest tech in toys. Yeah. So here's *** look at some of the gear that choppers just could not resist. Ho ho ho. Welcome to the financial district in San Francisco. And what may go down in shopping history is the first yuppie Christmas young urban professionals. Yuppies go to places like this. It's called in gear. This is the land of the fashionably practical where an egg timer is cast iron and drips out the seconds in sand from the most expensive beaches where garden tools are from England and look like they were by appointment to Her Majesty. They're made of stainless steel and they look like they're too nice to use here. You can get *** personal security knife that slips into the same shirt pocket as *** cross pin. This is where office workers ponder the usefulness of *** dipstick cleaner. Well, I think it would be *** handy device because sometimes service stations don't even have the paper towels anymore like they used to and you don't have *** rag or *** Kleenex. Just just what it says. If your yuppie already has an underwater rescue light for *** life jacket, perhaps he or she needs an ice cream scoop, an electric ice cream scoop. Yuppie kids like fun. Christmas toys in the store at the Exploratorium. *** science museum is just the thing. Not all the toys are expensive. The roving eye is *** good child stocking stuffer. There's also the mess free bubble blower, squeeze the bottle and up, pops. The bubble wand. Electronic sculpture is the newest high tech Christmas present, run your hand over the glass globe and you can see your biological aura. The two potato clock is *** big seller stick in the probes and it runs on electrolytes available in any plant or animal beer, salt water house plants, lemons, your kids, your kids, the cat, the dog, two hamsters. Anything tired of trivial pursuit. Try Domino pictures. The trick is to make your eyes go out of focus so you can see the portrait in the dots with Albert Einstein. And guess who in San Francisco, this is John Gibson channel three reports. And we might want to explain because back in the eighties, yuppie was *** word. People used *** lot young upwardly mobile professional kind of like bougie would be considered now, you know, that's pretty much it just fancy. Yeah, just kind of fancy. All right. Well, you can Google it too if you want to. Well, we're gonna show you the uh tiny village that brought *** lot of uh smiles to some faces back in 1980 when we come back and welcome back to our KCR *** three special NorCal holiday memories. Yeah, we have uh this next story that shows some neighbors in Orangeville, they got pretty competitive, bringing in hundreds to their street to show off what they put together. And also just to spend some quality time with their families. The 18 homes in this Orangeville cul de sac are *** light show unto themselves. It all started six years ago. And every Christmas the look becomes *** little brighter. *** little bit more and *** little bit more. Lots of lights, yard displays different music, more parties. Then when the outside work is done, the neighbors gather indoor to celebrate their efforts. It brings the block closer together. And we found that generally it makes our Christmas *** much more positive experience and the kids seem to enjoy it. This is *** real holiday bunch. They join forces every Halloween Christmas and Easter and they tell me their Fourth of July party is the blockbuster of them all. It's *** time we work together as families and in our busy lives, that's hard to do. The kids have grown over the years, but the Christmas spirit stays with them. I'm gonna take everything that my mom and dad have all their scenery that we got since my mom had was *** little girl. I'm gonna decorate it at my house when I grow up. Yeah. And this block that does everything together draws quite *** long line of Spectators. Last Christmas Eve, 846 cars cruised do wood court. This is where the people come to catch the sights and the sounds of Christmas. It's so beautiful and we come down here every year and it's just, every house is lit up and it's just so beautiful. The Christmas spirit. What is it that special about this place? OK, we should mention Dove Wood Court is still going strong all these years later, I'm trying to do this would be 40 years later now and we still send live Copter three up over Dove Wood Court to to just capture their magic every year. Yeah, I'm sure we'll be doing it this year too. Well, that was pretty amazing for that neighborhood. Check out this Oakdale family that put something together for all to see. Yeah, this tiny village brought joy to hundreds of people every year. This story doesn't need much explanation. The pictures can do that except to say it's the creation of Edward and Myrtle Peterson and their Children. This winter wonderland was started three years ago. It's changed *** bit. This year, the mountain background was added. And each year the Petersons open their home to senior citizens, school Children and church groups to share what they have made. Last year, more than 450 people were able to see the display and everything except the machinery, people, animals and trees is handmade. The one little child. He was about seven years old. He couldn't understand there was no freeway and no cars. And I said this is the whole idea about this, the simplicity of Christmas that we can have fun without all that junk. Christmas can be made, not all just purchased out of the store. Um You know, to be together and to love one another. The Peterson say their winter wonderland wouldn't be worthwhile if it was left on the mantle for only the family it was made to be shared in Oakdale Bob Weedman for channel three reports. Just feels like *** little video Christmas card there. And we certainly hope you're at home making some wonderful memories uh this holiday season. And we wanna thank you so much for joining us, for ours and joining us for the KC three special NorCal holiday Memories.