EAST BAY — With Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and the rest of his reindeers resting their hooves in anticipation of Christmas Eve, Santa had to find another mode of aerial transportation to pay an early visit to some local people on his “nice” list Sunday. 

So he called on the good folks at the nonprofit Flying Santa, who have been dropping off gifts via helicopter to Coast Guard families and lighthouse keepers at Christmastime for 80 years.

On Sunday afternoon Santa passed over the local area, making stops at Castle Hill in Newport, Prudence Island and then the Aids to Navigation Team in Bristol. Along with about 15 Coast guard children and their parents, Chief Gregg Marsili, commander of the Bristol team, anxiously awaited the big guy’s arrival from the other side of Bristol Harbor. It was only the second time Santa had stopped at the Bristol station.

“Normally they don’t land here, but we convinced them of that,” said Chief Marsili.

Many of the children had no idea why they were even there, he said. “They’re saying, ‘We are we at where daddy works?’ he said. “I told the kids that Santa comes out to all the Coast Guard kids a week or two early and gives them all gifts for putting up with their dads’ service and all the hours we have to work.”

He added with a laugh, “It was tough today because this morning we had breakfast with Santa.”

Santa finally touched down to greet his biggest fans, then went inside the station headquarters to pass out gifts — replicas of the Coast Guard Jawhawk helicopter for the boys and “Flying Santa 2009” teddy bears for the girls.

Although some of the smaller ones were a little apprehensive about approaching Santa, he soon won them over with his charm. “See, I don’t bite,” he told one boy. “The reindeer tell me that.”

Brian Tague, director of Flying with Santa, said it was a busy weekend. “We did about a dozen stops today and we did a dozen stops yesterday in Maine,” he said. “There are 33 stops from New York to Maine — six states and over 600 Coast Guard kids.”

Flying Santa is a nonprofit operation, with no overhead and no salaries. “We’re fortunate that we get our helicopter donated from three different agencies, so it works out well,” said Mr. Tague. “We get donations from individuals and we’ve done lighthouse bus tours and boat cruises and raffles. We sell coffee mugs, sweatshirts and hats and it adds up.”

Mr. Tague is also the official shutterbug for each mission. “I’ve been photographing flights for 19 years and it’s a blast. It’s a great way to celebrate Christmas. You’re looking at the entire New England region,” said Mr. Tague. When there’s snow on the ground, the aerial view is pretty spectacular, he added.

80th anniversary

Flying Santa all began in 1929 with a Maine floatplane pilot, Capt. William Wincapaw.

“He had a great appreciation for the jobs that the lighthouse keepers and Coast Guard did, so he loaded up his helicopter with presents and dropped them off on Christmas Day,” said Mr. Tague.

The modest presents dropped to Rockland, Maine-area lighthouse families during the first trip in 1929 included newspapers, magazines, coffee, candy and other items. They were small luxuries for lighthouse keepers and their families. 

“For the first 10 years of the program, it was a Christmas Day flight. But then it expanded to include all of New England and a little bit of West Coast and Great Lakes, so it wasn’t possible to do it on Christmas. We give ourselves the day off now, but it’s a seven-day-a week preparation that begins in November,” he said.

In the 1990s, as many lighthouses became automated and were handed over to towns and nonprofit groups, the program evolved to include more and more Coast Guard units, he said.

“Now it’s primarily a Coast Guard mission, but we have half a dozen or so public locations,” said Mr. Tague.

One of those is Prudence Island, where about “20 or so” people came out to greet Santa on Sunday. Last year the weather didn’t cooperate and Prudence residents and some others didn’t get to see Santa until after the 25th.

“The past couple of years we’ve had to pass over the day after Christmas, so they were joking that we were a little bit early this year,” said Mr. Tague with a smile.

For more information about Flying Santa, visit www.flyingsanta.org.