New San Francisco tradition rolls out with decorating cable cars

As holiday traditions go, the decorating of San Francisco’s cable car fleet may stand out as one of the most unique.

Every year, scores of volunteers — along with a few off-duty cable car operators — gather in the cable car barn to deck the cars with bows of holly — and also lights, garland and ornaments.

"It's a blast to see the cars go through," volunteer decorator Bob Myers said. "Knowing you decorated this."

In a city of traditions, the decorating of the cars is a newer one — attended by volunteers only the last 20 years or so. Myers has turned out the last three years for the decorating operation, which is spread across several weekends around Thanksgiving.

“It’s just artistic,” Myers said while attaching a wreath to the front of one of the cars. “You just kind of jump in and do it.”

In the dim light of the barn, which sits in the powerhouse of the Washington-Mason line, volunteers took-up zip ties, binder clips, c-clamps and bungee cords to fasten imitation greenery and ornaments to the cars. Some peeled off snowflake stickers to stick on the windows. Another volunteer draped a strand of silvery tinsel along the car’s passenger compartment. The decorators have a free-hand to follow their artistic vision, as long as the decor doesn’t interfere with passengers or the operating of the cars.

“This stuff all has to stay on there a couple months,” Myers said. “Like through rain and wind and everything else.”

Up on a ladder attaching flowers to the ceiling of a car, retired CHP officer James Giraudo was in his seventh year of decorating.

Giraudo, who wrote a book about the cable cars when he was 13 years old, said the most exciting part is watching people in the streets marvel as the cars make their rounds.

“You see the people as the cable cars are going up and down, stopping and looking at them with all the decorations and taking pictures,” Giraudo said. “It gives you a little bit of pride.”

For decades, the cable car operators decorated only a single car each year - car 13. But when gripman Valentine Lupiz took over the decorations two decades ago, he saw the opportunity to decorate even more.

“It went from one car to three to five to 10,” laughed Lupiz while wrestling with a wreath.

This year marks Lupiz's 20th year at the helm of the decorating.

It’s a labor of love with Lupiz, staff and volunteers digging into their own pockets to pay for all the supplies.

Lupiz said even during the pandemic, the volunteers managed to decorate the cars, which brought some needed holiday sparkle to the beleaguered city.

“Right after COVID and leading up to it, it seemed to really bring people’s spirits up and make them happy,” Lupiz said. “It seemed to bring some life back to the city.”

Not long before this year’s decorating began, leaders of the SFMTA, which oversees the cable car division, cautioned that due to a budget shortfall there was a possibility some cable car lines might have to reduce service. Lupiz took the news in stride, saying he believed the announcement was simply a worst case scenario.

“There’s the cable cars that bring in the tourists, and the tourists spend their money at the restaurants and the hotels and convention centers,” Lupiz reasoned. “So if these things stop running, the tourists stop coming.”

Inside the decorating party, no one was focused on the dire possibilities but rather how to string lights on a rooftop or safely attach a wreath to the front of a car without blocking the headlight.

“It’s really important to show the spirit,” observed David Banberry, a retired cable car employee who also helps decorate the cars for other seasons. “We do a car for Easter, Flag Day, Fourth of July.”

Still, it’s the Christmas season that draws the most helpers, sometimes spanning multiple generations. Myers’ grandson Sam Jeffs helped round up a number of friends to helping with this year’s decorating.

“It’s just fun and then you get to do something everyone will see,” said Jeffs, wearing a cable car-themed holiday sweater. “Tourists will see it, passengers will see it, riders will see it throughout the holidays.”

By the end of the decorating sessions this year, ten cable cars were laden with belts of fake greenery, dangling lights and shiny ornaments, creating even more excitement for the iconic vehicles that serve as the city’s biggest attraction.

Giraudo descended the ladder and stepped back for a brief moment to appreciate the group’s handiwork one of the cars.

“To me,” Giraudo said, “Christmas has arrived.”