Santa’s Early in Pacoima, Canoga Park

It looked like Santa had just flown in from Puerto Vallarta: The twinkle in his eye was masked by dark shades and, somewhere along the line, he had traded his red cap for a sombrero.

But that didn’t stop the spry old elf from delighting hundreds of Canoga Park children. “He gave me a toy I could play with,” said 9-year-old Jose Luis Mara, holding up a plastic dump truck. “I never had one like this before.”

Christmas came early to Jose Luis and nearly 1,000 other children in the San Fernando Valley Wednesday as Santa visited community parties in Pacoima and Canoga Park and handed out gifts donated by businesses, schools and individuals.

At the Guadalupe Center in Canoga Park, hundreds of children and their parents formed a line stretching more than halfway down the block. They waited to celebrate the holidays with hamburger lunches, helium balloons and ice cream.

Children old enough to walk by themselves ate lunch and met Santa while parents watched from the other side of a chain-link fence. Clustered in small groups on the dry grass or seated on wooden benches, the children ate potato chips, drank orange juice and sucked on candy canes as Christmas music blared from a portable stereo.

It was the sixth annual Christmas party sponsored by the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley Division for about 300 families who are “adopted” at Christmas each year by the Catholic center. Stuffed animals, Ninja Turtles, Barbie dolls and plastic dinosaurs were among the gifts donated by area schools, churches and families.

The party is one of several holiday events that the division holds each year, said George Aguilar, the senior lead officer who organized the event.

“This is part of what community policing is about,” said West Valley Division Capt. Valentino Paniccia. “(These events) help to build trust between us and the community. And they’re fun, besides.”

Across the Valley at the San Fernando Boys and Girls Club in Pacoima, Santa also handed out gifts to hundreds of children during the club’s 12th annual Christmas party. This year the party was open to the public, not just club members.

The club’s 75-member drill team, a Polynesian dance troupe and a local rap group were among the performers.