SAN MARCOS POLICE DEPARTMENT
The San Marcos Police Department’s Blue Santa program handed out toys to 725 families this year, an increase of more than 200 families from last year’s total. The program, co-sponsored by the San Marcos Community and Police Association, held a gift distribution event on Saturday, providing big bags of presents to smiling families from throughout the area.
SMPD Sergeant Laray Taylor, who has been running Blue Santa for 14 years, said that in recent years, the program has averaged around 450-500 families. But in 2025, the number of applications went up by close to 50%.
“This year was something different,” Taylor said. “We saw a lot of families that we’ve never seen before, that weren’t in our database. This told us there’s a lot of people that have moved into this area.”
The SMPD Blue Santa also works with the Community Center in Rancho Vista and City Bakery to distribute toys. The Blue Santa program reviews all of the applications, and verifies their addresses. And once approved, volunteers start matching gifts to the families.
“Whether you have one child in the household, or whether you have 11, and we did have one family with 11 kids, every child gets two gifts.”
Volunteers at the Blue Santa Gift Wrapping and Distribution Center, 301 N. Edward Gary St., included members of the San Marcos Police Department staff as well as representatives from Boy Scout Troop 222 based in Canyon Lake.
Sergeant Taylor said that the program initially accepted donated toys, but decided to switch to monetary donations to be able to provide new toys for the kids.
“My feeling is we bring in enough money to buy quality gifts for the kids, and that’s important for families in need. We’re going to give you something nice. We spend a lot of time and money picking out gifts and not buying bulk,” he said.
The Blue Santa program is celebrating its 53rd year of serving local families and is the largest annual holiday toy giveaway in San Marcos. Last year the program distributed toys to 1,258 children.
“As a police department, to be able to serve our community this way is really a privilege,” said Taylor.
