Four local families given special Christmas through Heavenly Holidays donation

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Four local families were treated to presents for their children at Fire & Ice in South Lake Tahoe on Monday. Mom even got to take home a special gift too!

Identified through SOS Outreach, the kids met with the jolly Santa Claus and were given bags of gifts to take home.

All of the funds to purchase the gifts came from Heavenly Holidays activities like Breakfast with Santa, hosted by Eric Watada and his State Farm Insurance office in partnership with Lake Tahoe Visitor's Authority (LTVA) and the Heavenly Village. The kids gave the Heavenly Village a wish list, then elves went out shopping to take care of those items.

"It's a great experience to give back," said Dreu Murin of Dreu Murin Productions. Murin said the owner of the Heavenly Village, Gary Casteel, donated his personal funds as well to make the holiday special for the kids.

Santa was on hand for his 72nd engagement in South Lake Tahoe this month. He arrived after Thanksgiving on board the South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue engine to light the village's Christmas tree.

Donations from another Heavenly Holiday event, the Santa Crawl, sent $1,000 to Clean Up The Lake who, in partnership with Tahoe Dive Center, are doing a 72-mile underwater-scuba trash clean up of the entire shoreline of Lake Tahoe in Nevada and California.

Murin said all funds raised during the Heavenly Holidays go back into the community.