A visit from Santa means more to Sherri Vittum than just seeing a smile on her daughter’s face. It means keeping a family tradition alive.

“When I was a little girl, my mom signed me up for visits from Santa,” Vittum said. “And now I’m doing the same for Abbie. It’s just incredible to see her face light up to have Santa come to the house.”

Abbie’s visit from Santa on Dec. 2 was made possible by the Westminster Fire Department. For more than 75 years, firefighters and community members have chauffeured Santa to various homes in the city. The program has become so popular that the city uses an online lottery system to select which families get Santa visits.

This year more than 1,000 children received a visit from Santa between Dec. 1 and 6.

“I love to see the look on kids’ faces when Santa shows up on a fire truck,” said Lieutenant Jayson Sale, program coordinator.  “They are surprised, excited and sometimes can barely tell Santa what they want for Christmas.”

This was Abbie’s third visit from Santa, and this year she asked for an Xbox and a Disney Infinity video game. She says she feels really special when Santa arrives at her door, like she’s the “only kid in the neighborhood lucky enough to meet Santa.”

“I feel excited when I see Santa,” Abbie Vittum, 7, said. “My favorite part about Christmas is getting all the things from Santa and hanging up the lights and all that stuff.”

Visits from Santa are just one of the many holiday traditions Vittum hopes to pass down to Abbie. She also hopes to provide the means for Abbie to have a close relationship with her grandma, Joyce Dowe, just like she did with her grandma as she was growing up.

“Traditions like making homemade pie are very important to me,” Vittum said. “I just miss my grandma, and I know she would have loved Abbie. So it’s important for me that Abbie knows her grandma how I knew my grandma.”