Desert Hot Springs family celebrates Christmas with their neighborhood

A Desert Hot Springs family decided to spread holiday cheer from their home on Friday night with brightly lit decorations, presents for children and pictures with Santa Claus.

Angela Perez and Frank Perales moved into their home on Hidalgo Street five months ago. They decorated for around two weeks, decking out their front lawn with lights, inflatable figures and Christmas wrapping paper over their garage door.

Perez said she promised her kids she would be “doing it big for Christmas” once she got a house. But since they’re grown up and didn’t want anything for the holiday, the family decided to buy gifts to pass out to children in the community.

“We did it actually for the kids, just so they could have something … there’s kids out there that don’t have nothing,” Perez said.

The family bought and wrapped 200 presents filled with things like candy and toys. The plan was to pass them out to the first 100 kids on Friday and the first 100 kids on Saturday — but by the end of the first night it was all gone. They planned to buy more presents for children ahead of Saturday night.

“Things like this, it makes me happy,” said Perez, who is excited to do the event every year. “Just to see kids smile and enjoy life.”

The family set up a table with hot chocolate and sweet bread for guests. Perales dressed up as Santa Claus and was taking pictures with the children who stopped by.

Jessica Smith came to the house with her husband Dakota Apostolou and 3-year-old daughter Aria Apostolou. She said they live down the street and have been watching them slowly put together their decorations.

“Not a lot of things happen in the neighborhood, especially in Desert Hot Springs … so to see something like this come together and for them to just do it out of the kindness of their hearts is kind of amazing,” she said. “So it's a Christmas blessing to our neighborhood cause they’re new here, they just moved in.”

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Brad Speight lives across the street from the event and called it a “brilliant idea.” He said he comes from a neighborhood that had a bond, which is something that’s needed today.

“This (event) is bridging that gap right here,” he said. “This is a start on our street, you know what I mean. Hopefully everybody else can catch on because I think that that’s what we need to really get back to as community.”

Perales credited the evening to his wife.

“She did everything here. She told us before – we lived in a one-bedroom apartment – she goes that one day once we get a house, she’s going to decorate it nice and look at it,” he said. “We’re able to get a good house, decorate it good and have all the community come out, give away gifts for a little bit, chocolate, bread, and everything.”

But Perez said she put together the event because she loves to give.

“I like to help people,” she said. “I mean, there’s a lot of people out there that don’t have anything and I would like to give.”

The family is hosting the event again at 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 10, at 13-760 Hidalgo Street in Desert Hot Springs. The event will end when they’ve finished passing out presents to children.

Ani Gasparyan covers the western Coachella Valley cities of Desert Hot Springs and Cathedral City. Reach her at ani.gasparyan@desertsun.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Desert Hot Springs family spreads Christmas cheer with neighborhood event