Santa’s Sleigh on E. 54th: Teran Davis’ Mold-Breaking Holiday Mission

Teran Davis is one of those people. While the rest of us are gauzily imagining the summit over sips of cabernet, Davis is kneeling in a blizzard and hammering in her tent stakes at base camp. With a grin. “I just believe in saying ‘Yes’ in life,” she delicately explains. “A few years ago, I was having about 200 women to the Los Angeles Country Club. I sent out an email 24 hours before my tea party and I said, ‘Please don’t bring me a gift. Just bring me an unwrapped children’s toy.’ I saw that a charity was working in Los Angeles at the Barker Hangar, and I thought, ‘I’m just going to drive over there on this Saturday morning and see if they want toys.’” They did. 

Fast forward. Santa’s “sleigh” is tooling down E. 54th Street in Los Angeles amid a flotilla of LAPD squad cars from Newton Station, Christmas tunes blaring through speakers. In the middle of the racket – a portly, elf in garish red velveteen is waving at gathered neighbors as Davis and her festive cadre of gift givers hand out wrapped surprises. “We served 1,500 families this year,” Davis says of the now-annual outreach. Toys, bikes, turkeys. What were Davis’ feelings the very first time she and her team visited the neighborhoods? “It was the most beautiful day of my life.”