The 14,000-acre ranch that temporarily housed thousands of firefighters—dispatched from agencies across California to contain the Gifford Fire in August—is inviting them back to see the former site of their base camp in a different light, literally.
“While they were there, a lot of local ranches around Santa Margarita and Pozo all said, ‘We want to thank them. Can we host a community barbecue for them?’ Or something like that, together, not realizing that barbecuing tri-tip for 6,000 people was probably not the easiest thing in the world to do,” said Steve Rossi, a co-founder of Santa Margarita Ranch’s annual winter tradition, Christmas at the Ranch.
“We had the idea to reach out to the same ranches, … to see if they would be willing to donate money to buy all the firefighter crews and their families tickets to the Christmas event,” Rossi told the Sun. “Sure enough, all immediately jumped on.”
The Santa Margarita Ranch began hosting its multifaceted holiday attraction in 2023, complete with train rides, elaborate light displays, and more.
Ahead of the ranch’s third annual event (select nights between Nov. 28 and Dec. 21), the venue teamed up with Riata Ranch, Riverdance Ranch, and Souza Construction to cover admission costs for the Gifford Fire camp crews and their families to attend the festivities free of charge.
Since the event’s formation, the proceeds from all ticket sales (admission ranges between $15 and $40) benefit two nonprofits: AGM Community Partners and Vintage Traditions Foundation.
Christmas at the Ranch co-founder Rossi is a board member of the latter, a group dedicated to preserving and restoring vintage boats, planes, and trains—including the steam engines and railroad cars that guests of Christmas at the Ranch can ride.
Three of the event’s featured train cars were originally used at Disneyland during the theme park’s earliest years after its opening in 1955. Some underwent restoration efforts that lasted several months.
“The trick is to always find the right vendors,” Rossi said. “If you have a steam engine, for example—like one of our steam engines, her name’s Caroline—and Caroline’s boiler needed a lot of work. So, you can’t just call the shop down the street and say, ‘Hey, can you work on a steam engine?’
“So, we found a place in Canada to do the restoration,” he continued. “We had to ship off parts of Caroline up to Canada. We have some parts we ship off to the East Coast, and then we have some parts that are here at a local shop in Arroyo Grande, and then we have some of our own staff do a number of painting and woodworking elements. … It’s a team effort.”
Situated along a 2-mile loop, the Christmas at the Ranch locomotive scored a nomination for Best Christmas Train Ride in Newsweek’s 2026 Readers’ Choice Awards, which recognizes holiday railroad experiences across the country when narrowing down its top 15 nominees.
The final rankings are set to be announced on Nov. 25.
“To be that young in this process and still hit those kinds of accolades, … we did not expect that,” Rossi said.
The acclaimed train ride is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to family-friendly festivities during Christmas at the Ranch, Rossi explained. Among them, he listed visits with Santa Claus, a magic show, a holiday marketplace, and more.
“We have fire pits with s’more kits, and we have a bunch of food trucks, and snack trucks, and a bar cart,” Rossi said. “Originally the idea was kids and families will love this, but now we also see a lot of date nights. We see grandparents on dates. We see college kids on dates. We’re like, ‘Wow, we didn’t expect that.’”
Highlight
• Local historian, journalist, and former Sun managing editor Joe Payne will lead a free lecture about the Chumash revolt of 1824 at the United Domestic Workers Hall, 402 S. Miller St., Santa Maria, on Nov. 20 at 6:30 p.m. For more info on Payne’s work, including his master’s thesis that the lecture is based on, visit politcalpayne.com.
Reach Senior Staff Writer Caleb Wiseblood at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 20 – Nov 27, 2025.