For more than two decades, the Seal Beach Lions Club has co-sponsored Breakfast With Santa with the Seal Beach Recreation Department. They will set the table again for local families for the event that will be held from 6:30 a.m. until noon on Saturday, Dec. 14. The Recreation Department will decorate the room as the Lions cook all the food. The event is free to all. As the event has grown over the years, the city now rents a bounce house and arranges for a small crafts room for kids.
“This is a great opportunity for kids to spend time with Santa and it is a true community event that would not be possible without the support of the Seal Beach Lions Club,” said Tim Kelsey, the city’s recreation manager.
It started over 20 years ago as a Parks and Recreation department event.
Longtime Lions Club member Scott Newton recalled the event’s early days.
“The Lions provided breakfast and (the late Bob Eagle) was Santa, and another group decorated,” Newton said. “There was a small fee the first year. After that we Lions Club members told them that we would provide the food for free. So, subsequent breakfasts were no charge.”
For the first 10-12 years Breakfast With Santa was held at the Mary Wilson Library senior center.
“Every year it got bigger and bigger, so it was moved to the Marina Center,” Newton said. “A few years ago, we held it in Eisenhower Park near the new Christmas Tree. All I remember was that it was very, very cold. It has been held at the Marina Center ever since.
While the Lions Club provides breakfast for free, it is the Leos (the youth arm of the Lions) that does most of the cooking. The menu includes pancakes hot off the grill, sausage, fruit, coffee, milk and hot chocolate. Santa is now played by Lion and Seal Beach Police Sgt. Steve Bowles.
“We serve more than 425 breakfasts and two thirds are children,” Newton said
Breakfast With Santa is not the only breakfast outreach the Lions perform. Every year for the past 29 years, the Lions Club have taken the youths and workers at CASA Youth Shelter in Los Alamitos out to breakfast during the holiday season.
“We then go back to CASA and provide each kid with a backpack full of Christmas gifts,” Newton said.
“For the first several years, we drove them to breakfast on the old Seal Beach 1929 American LaFrance fire engine (that often had a starring role in many Seal Beach parades from Founders Day to Christmas),” Newton said.
“It was cold but very fun and Mildred Jones (the beloved late founder of Casa Youth Shelter) would ride up front.
“After the breakfast with Santa started, we decided to bring them to breakfast with the families of Seal Beach and for many years now they dine with everyone else at Breakfast with Santa,” Newton said.
The CASA Kids will be there again this year.
