‘Yule’ want to see these photos of the SF fire stations participating in the 2025 Fire Station Community Holiday Decorations Competition, who’ve decked the halls out hard with freaking festive fixtures to bring joy to the world.
This Christmas and Hanukkah season, SF’s December nights are once again razzle-dazzled up by the sixth year of the rebooted annual San Francisco Fire Station Community Holiday Decorations Competition. The contest is an old SF tradition from the late 1940s and early 1950s that returned in 2020 during the COVID doldrums, and this year the fire stations are competing for $4,000 in prize money for the winning stations’ charities of choice.
The judging to determine the winners of the best decorated SF fire station contest will happen Saturday, December 20, between 5 and 10 pm, with a series of public block parties at the participating fire stations that will feature holiday treats and family-friendly gatherings of revelers. These winners will be announced this Sunday, December 21.
The problem right now is that barely 24 hours before these holiday block parties are supposed to happen, the SF Fire Department has still not even announced where these parties will be, nor which of the 49 fire stations in town are participating. Guys, it will be hard for families to participate in these block parties if you don’t tell people where to go!
But SFist has spent the last few nights bouncing around town like a sugarplum to seek out the most festive-looking fire stations in SF. And we have a pretty strong hunch that these are the fire stations that are participating in — and have a very good chance of winning — the 2025 San Francisco Fire Station Community Holiday Decorations Competition.
STATION 39 (1091 Portola Drive)
Go tell it on the Mount Davidson that Sherwood Forest’s Station 39 may be the hardest fire station to reach by public transit or to find parking near, but it may well be the damned finest decorated fire station of the bunch. It is absolutely mixed nuts up there at Station 39, with an assortment of Frostys, Santas, Grinches, Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas, an entire gate made of candy canes, and a blinking tunnel of animated LED light spectacular gloriousness.
Station 38 (2150 California Street)
Right near Lafayette Park, Station 38 contains so many multitudes of holiday cheer that one image cannot do its gingerbread justice. But as seen below, we have numerous large-scale inflatable holiday characters (including Baby Yoda and Mickey Mouse), an animated LED Christmas choo-choo express, and the surrounding trees and bushes festooned out in holiday finery.
Station 18 (1935 32nd Avenue)
The Outer Sunset’s Station 18 was last year’s First Place winner, and once again brings the biggest snowflakes and LED Christmas trees of any fire station in town. There’s also holiday projection mapping on the building’s facade and surrounding sidewalk, an inflatable Santa sleigh with a strobe light show, and a kick-ass American flag replica made entirely of Christmas lights.
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), and being right next to the Bay Bridge, it benefits from its surrounding holiday light awesomeness along the Embarcadero. There’s a meticulous string-light display, several inflatable holly-jollies outside the building, and Fireboat 3, aka the Saint Francis, often sitting next to a lovely “Deck the Halls” dock of lit-up Christmas merriment.
STATION 7 (2300 Folsom Street)
STATION 7 (2300 Folsom Street)
Folsom and 19th Street’s Station 7 took third place last year, in the condition seen above. This year’s current condition is, well, not that impressive yet.
You can go ahead and make the “head up his ass” jokes about the inflatables that are up there so far, and SFist did observe about a half-dozen other inflatables being applied when we popped by last night. Knowing Station 7, they are going to have this station a lot more tricked out by the time Saturday’s 5 pm block party rolls around.
Others stations may have completed their decorations by the time Saturday’s block parties start at 5 pm. You can keep an eye on the SF Fire Department's Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts for further information on block party locations.
This post will be updated with further information on Saturday’s block part locations.
The 2025 San Francisco Fire Station Community Holiday Decorations Competition Block Parties Saturday, December 20, between 5-10 pm at various participating fire stations across San Francisco. The decorations will remain up at least through New Year’s Eve.
Images: Joe Kukura, SFist
