Victor Claus and Elf Julian dash through San Antonio

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) — You could say that Santa Claus had a sudden growth spurt this holiday season.

As part of the Spurs annual partnership with the Elf Louise Christmas Project, San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama played the role of Santa Claus to deliver Christmas presents, Spurs tickets and holiday cheer to children and families in need Thursday evening.  Wembanyama, along with his lead elf and teammate, Julian Champagnie, made door-to-door gift deliveries to families on San Antonio’s westside.

The Elf Louise Christmas project is dedicated to providing joy to Bexar County’s underserved children. The project began in 1969 when the program’s founder, Louise Locker, was a student at Trinity University in San Antonio. She found that for many San Antonio families, Christmas just did not exist and began to look for a way to provide a few Christmas presents for children. In the first year she collected gifts for children of 13 families. Currently, the organization collects over 60,000 gifts for distribution.

The Elf Louise Christmas Project is an all-volunteer organization and is dependent on the generous donations by individual citizens and businesses in our community who wish to share the joy of Christmas. Ninety-eight cents of every dollar donated goes to the purchase, wrapping and delivery of gifts to children.