Yule want to see these photos of the SF fire station that won the 2024 SF Fire Department Holiday Decorating Contest, plus pictures and video of the other runner-up stations that decked the halls hard to bring joy to the world.
The 49 fire stations all across San Francisco have rebooted the old SF Fire Department Holiday Decorating Contest, which harks and heralds back to the late 1940s, when an old-time holiday decorations contest lit up San Francisco Fire Department stations all over town. The modern version of the contest is now in its fifth consecutive year since returning in 2020, and has been won in previous years by fire stations that had snow machines blowing fake snow, or even trucked in real snow from Lake Tahoe to win these increasingly competitive reindeer games.
So SFist went to see the finalists of this full-blown, four-alarm, holiday razzle-dazzle light spectacular, whose spirited displays will make your nights merry and bright.
And who did we run into? Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie, who served as one of the judges for the SF Fire Department Holiday Decorating Contest, along with KTVU’s Sal Castaneda, and the SFFD and SFPD’s Los Bomberos de San Francisco. And just before 4 pm on Christmas Eve, we learned who won the top prize.
FIRST PLACE
Station 18 (1935 32nd Avenue)
The Chronicle reports that first prize went to the Outer Sunset’s Station 18, a meticulously decorated onslaught of red and green that can only be fully appreciated with all of its animated LED blinkies going at full blast.
And Station 18 surely has the biggest “tree” of the bunch, which is impressive enough, but its multicolored animated snowfalls projected onto the station facade and sidewalk complete the winter wonderland scene.
SECOND PLACE
STATION 39 (1091 Portola Drive)
Go tell it on the Mount Davidson that Sherwood Forest’s Station 39 came in second place, after winning this contest in 2023 with its delightfully tacky holiday stylings. Their station offers quite an assortment of mixed nuts, with Frostys, Santas, trees, and the animated light spectacular seen below.
THIRD PLACE
STATION 7 (2300 Folsom Street)
Really tasteful work here at Station 7 between the Mission and SoMa earned this station third place in the 2024 contest. It’s not going to blow eight tiny reindeer out of the sky or anything, but there’s a certain classic quality to this warming holiday glow.
FOURTH PLACE
Station 40 (2155 18th Avenue)
There’s plenty to unpack at fourth-place winner Station 40 that cannot be captured in one photo. So let’s break this one down into sections.
Up on the housetop, Drosselmeier and his faithful Dalmatian buddy are ready to crack the nuts on any fires that should occur in the Inner Parkside neighborhood.
We’ve also got a big ol’ inflatable Santa in a fire truck, with a separate, seemingly less inflated Santa clinging for his life on a perch beneath. And that’s a light-up ladder in the lower left, so get your minds out of the gutter, people.
Station 40 also boasts a larger-than-life snow globe topped with a jumbo peppermint candy.
RUNNER-UP
STATION 35 (Pier 22½, The Embarcadero at Harrison Street)
Station 35 is “the world’s only floating fire station” (or at least that’s what SFFD says) right next to the Bay Bridge, and home to Fireboat 3, a.k.a. the Saint Francis. That vessel received quite the fa-la-la-la-facelift for the holiday decorating contest.
But that boat is just one part of Station 35’s freaking festive makeover. Holiday lights cover every window of the station, and a Christmas tree sits as the cherry on top of the station’s southern end.
On the northern end, projected holiday characters are dancing like sugarplums on the side of the building.
Station 35 kind of got jobbed in the 2022 contest, as the Saint Francis got called for a rescue during the judging, and was forced to remove its inflatable Grinch and leave the contest to go save lives.
The winning stations will split $4,000 worth of prize money, money that will be awarded to the charity of those stations' choice. First place winner Station 18 has announced they will donate their earnings to the People of Parkside Sunset Merchants Association and the City Surf Project, other winning stations have not yet made their announcements. Though previous years’ charities that were awarded the money have included La Casa de las Madres, the San Francisco Firefighters Cancer Prevention Foundation, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, and (of course) the San Francisco Firefighters Toy Program.
Images: Joe Kukura, SFist
