♪ to town ♪ -♪ ooh, yeah ♪ -♪ santa claus is coming to town ♪ ♪ santa claus is coming to town ♪ ♪ ooh, santa claus is coming ♪ ♪ to town. ♪ captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org now at 11:00. >> getting all the shopping done in between, crazy. >> any last-minute shoppers who were concern about silent judgement for procrastinating had nothing to worry about. where we checked in with people checking off their list in the 11th hour. plus, after big waves and bursts of wind -- in time for christmas. and celebrating christmas eve with song. >> it's just fun. it's just fun. >> the bay area tradition in full swing before the presents

get unwrapped. plus a holiday tradition reserved for toys gets a dose of reality. from kpix, this is the late news with sara donchey on cbs news bay area. >> hi, i'm sara donchey. a lot of families have their thing on christmas eve. for some people it's staying in and cooking. for other people they do presents tonight versus tomorrow morning. some go out for christmas eve. and if you're in the city or even beyond it, that might include seeing the san francisco gay men's chorus. they were at a new venue this year. ♪ ♪ >> this year's holiday spectacular kicked off at the davey symphony hall. the castro theater is undergoing renovations. while the address changed, the group promised the fun would not be left behind. kelsi thorud caught the show and caught up with a couple of

fans about their special connection to that tradition. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: for over 15 years, linda zimmerman has made it her annual tradition to see san francisco's gay men's chorus christmas concert. >> it's just fun. it's just fun. they have some serious music, but then they do a lot of parodies and lot of laughs. >> reporter: linda moved to san francisco from the east coast back this the '70s. she says in recent years, the concert has become a sort of home away from home for her. >> i'm an elder orphan, which means i don't have family. i have a limited support system, so i come to see them just to lift my spirits. and they always do that for me. >> reporter: then one year, the chorus brought something even bigger into linda's life. >> but i met susan at the herself theater probably seven years ago. >> reporter: linda says that year she bought a ticket last

minute and just happened to get seated next to susan led ford, who had done the same. >> it's different every year, and it's always fun. >> reporter: the two hit it off and forged a friendship. now every year since that fateful meeting, they've been coming to the concert together. >> it's something to do on my own and with linda, and it's just a getaway and a breakaway and just soak it in. >> reporter: it's a show that every year brings people of all walks of life together. and if you're lucky enough can even introduce you to someone who will stay in your lifelong after the curtain closes. >> ignited the friendship that's been lasting, yeah. >> if you are one of the people who waited until the absolute last minute to finish your holiday shop, you probably had a lot of company. it was busy at the veranda in concord

earlier today. the parking lot was already almost full before noon. we saw a lot of families spending their christmas eve on the ice skating rink and going to the movie, but other people were there for one job. >> my shopping is a lot quicker, just because i have him. i can't bring him everywhere. i try to do half in person, half online. >> procrastination on getting christmas gifts and wanting to spread love to my family and getting them something. >> in downtown livermore less hustle and bustle and more laid back. we checked in with families taking it easy this christmas eve. >> reporter: it's hard not to feel the christmas spirit waiting in line with this family in livermore. cameron and steve are dressed to the nines. >> personally i like red a lot, so i had to go with the red and the nutcrackers too, because it's pretty cool. >> the tennis shoes tie it

together. >> oh yeah, definitely. real christmassy. they ran out of elf shoes at walmart. >> boots are in the shop right now. >> reporter: the family is celebrating christmas eve differently this year, trading a cozy night in for one with friends. they plan on spending the evening at a simply fondue, closing the night out with a special birthday tribute to a loved ones. the outfits were just a plus. down the street is teresa donovan. >> there's one santa right there. >> reporter: she chose to spend the holiday searching for clues on a scavenger hunt with her husband. she's this close to finding all the pictures. >> i found one great clump, i didn't find the other. i've never seen the scavenger hunt. i don't know if they always do it or not, but the tree is always here. >> reporter: they're used to a more traditional christmas eve with children and grandchildren crowding the house, but she says a stroll is almost just as good. >> we had our family christmas last night. so we decided we're going to see wicked and go out

to lunch afterwards and walking back. and we found this. >> reporter: meanwhile, the alexander family is looking forward to tomorrow morning when everyone gets to unwrap their gifts. if you ask robert, the gifts are only part of the fun. >> i just like spending time with family. so i haven't thought about presents or nothing like that. just quality family time. >> so it was a relatively smooth day for travelers nighing out of sfo. some complications. there were a few cancellations today. only three, which is not many, but about 120 flights were delayed, according to flight aware. oakland saw 22 delay, san jose had 27. the majority of the delayed flights in san francisco were for american airlines passengers. the faa grounded its flights nationwide early this morning after a technical glitch with terrible timing. the good thing is it only lasted about an hour. but it did have that ripple effect. snow in new york and rain in dallas also caused some problems. >> all planes grounded for american in the u.s. so we were

like, what's going on? >> curious about why, and you're thinking about everyone is trying to travel on the holidays, delayed getting back to where they want to be. >> a little scary. >> little panic. >> yeah, i don't want to get stuck. i don't want to get stuck here. >> nobody likes to sit in the airport too long. >> people are making their way through the sierras tonight. this is a look at highway 80 and donner summit. traffic was stopped eastbound on 80 earlier in that area after several spin outs. that happens with weather like this. chain control is in effect thanks to the slick and snowy conditions on the road, which is why zoey, when you're here and when paul is here, you guys all say be very careful if you're heading up to the mountains when the weather is the way it has been. >> yeah, give yourself extra time. you're going to want to take it slow first and foremost. you're probably going to come into contact with people that have spun off and slowdowns on the roadways. so do deep that in mind if you're heading up towards the mountains. for here in the bay area, there should no be any issues when it comes to the weather bringing us any sort of impacts over the next 12 or 24

hours at least. that's really great news. clouds will continue to peel back through early tomorrow morning. but that means our temperatures early tomorrow morning are going to get very chilly, because the lack of cloud coverage means the heat from the day is able to escape. and we'll be sitting in the mid-40s across much of the bay area, if not upper 30s across our inland east bay and north bay communities. so it's going to be a very chilly start to our morning. but by the afternoon hours we will be warming up to seasonable. in the 50s across the bay area from our coastal communities to our inland areas, no longer seeing micro climates we saw in full force during the summertime, we're all feeling the same winter chill we're used to for this time of year. nothing too crazy. nothing out of the ordinary that we see on christmas. it will be kind of really the the middle because the warmest christmas on record, we saw a 67-degree december 25th, the coldest morning we felt was 35 degrees. we will be right in between that. not expecting any sort of

rain, although fun fact for you all, about 35% of christmases in san francisco have seen at least some sort of rainfall. so it's lucky that we're not seeing any activity tomorrow, which means you should be clear on the roadways. more rain on the way late they are week. rain chances significantly picking up by as soon as wednesday night. then an even stronger storm system will arrive late thursday night. i'll write down the details and the timing of those upcoming systems and when calmer and quieter conditions will finally arrive in my full forecast. back to you. >> calm and quiet sounds nice, especially for these guys. santa cruz city workers have a problem on their hands. they spent their christmas eve morning checking out the damage after 150 feet of the wharf fell into the ocean. the waves have been too high to send crews to clean up the debris. the wharf was under crux to fix damage from past winter storms when this happened. now the area is shut down indefinitely. and 20 businesses along the wharf are stuck waiting on a

re-opening date. kevin ko talked with some of those business owners about their uncertain future. >> so we've got all kinds of candies. >> reporter: the candy adds up when you've been in business since 1915. it started with victor, gino and nick's great-grandfather. >> push cart on the boardwalk turned into our location on the boardwalk. the rest was history. >> reporter: what the future holds for the candy company store on the wharf is still unknown. it's a pain staking waiting game for them and other business owners on the santa cruz wharf. the end of the pier that collapsed has been closed the past year. that includes the dolphin restaurant, forced to close in december of 2023. next to the restaurant sits the candy store. even closer to the edge is the made in santa cruz gift shop. >> very overwhelmed. >> reporter: i'm sorry. >> it's been a long year. there's nothing i can do about

it. i mean, i have to be strong. i have two kids, and you know, they've lost their father at the beginning of the year, so it's just been very, you know, hard on all of us. >> reporter: new difficulties may only be beginning. congressman jimmy panetta saw the damage first hand and saws funding from every source possible will be necessary for recovery. >> everybody is going to have to be involve sod we can get this iconic wharf back up and running. it's not just the wharf itself, it's the business owners and the businesses shut down right now on a busy week. >> when the wharf re-opens, just support everybody on there. it's just been very, very hard for everybody on the wharf, especially the last couple years. >> reporter: a tough economy has also brought less customers but both are hoping online sales will get them by. but even that can be difficult. >> all my inventory online is in the store. so that's, you know, a whole other issue too.

>> some of the companies up on the wharf aren't so lucky. the restaurants don't have anything to fall back on. even some of the gift shops might have online. if this goes a week, ten day, it'll be a blip and we'll deal with it. if this is a couple months of something, that may be a different discussion. >> we have obviously reported on burglars going after cash and valuables, yes, how about eggs? san leandro police say a group of thieves went on a tear, busted into a restaurant and then a gamestop. they say they went to the family restaurant first where they stole liquor, food, and eggs. yep, eggs. which are hard to come by these days because of a shortage related to bird flu, though we have no idea if that is why they took them. then police say they hit up a gamestop next. police chased them and eventually caught one of the suspects. a night on the water in south florida ends with people

running for their lives after a boat exploded at a marina. >> the whole dock was already on fire. it was kind of insane. >> we'll tell you what happened as people jumped in to try and help. and hawaii's kilauea volcano is very busy. why one guy says he was in the right place at the right time to watch all of it. plus, one elf left the shelf to spread christmas cheer all over town.

a 37-foot boat was ripped in half by an explosion in south florida. it was docked at a refuelling station. this happened in fort lauderdale. five people were taken to the hospital, one person died. the explosion and the fire after it was caught on camera. look at this. one witness said it sounded like a firework going off. >> all i saw was the boat just explode and the top of the boat went up and then the boat -- i mean, it came back down and the boat went into flames. so i mean, after that i ran to see if anybody needed help. one guy was on fire. another person was in the water. it was like chaos. >> officials are looking into whether the crew was refuelling when the boat exploded. all right, this has got to be one of the more interesting time lapse videos you'll see. this is the kilauea volcano erupting, which happens fairly often, though you don't always get to see it like this. guests

at the hawaii volcano house have a window overlooking a crater. they get one of the best views around. one guy said he was only staying there for one night and the stars aligned for him to get to see this. >> and i hear somebody yell, oh my god, the volcano's erupting. and i was like, oh, no way, maybe it's something little. i peeked back the curtain and said, oh my god, the volcano's erupting, everybody needs to wake up right now. the fountains were really pretty dramatic. the smoke was going in all different directions. >> kilauea is one of the most active volcanos in the world. volcanic smog is the only immediate threat, mainly for people with asthma or other breathing problems. new yorkers were able to get out and celebrate a white christmas, or at least a white christmas eve. at least an inch fell in central park today. that's most snow on christmas eve since all the way back in 1998, if you can believe it. northwest of the city recorded well over 2 inches of fresh snow. the snow isn't expected to stick around in the city, so

people took advantage of the winter fun while they could. >> really fun. like for more medium starters. the other hill is like more advanced. >> last year there was not really that much snow. i think it's fun to go to central park and go sledding. >> temperatures hit above freezing today, but if there's still an inch of snow on the ground on christmas morning, it would be the first white christmas in the city since 2009, which you know, that's better than a 0% chance. yeah, i miss the snow. i'm from chicago. i'm from the midwest. i'm used to a white christmas, but yeah, as you can see behind you, the chance of a white christmas for us here in the bay area is zero. we've never had a white christmas. the purple is also zero. it's a paul joke, as you all know his sense of humor. i had to show that one on christmas eve. >> that is my favorite graphic. 0% of but also 0% in purple. >> it's not going to snow tomorrow. and it's not going to rain too. that's the best

news of all. santa is not going to have any issues delivering presents overnight tonight. he's not going to have to grab his umbrella or have to worry about any severe weather like what we saw waking up this morning. and tomorrow morning it's going to be mostly clear, mostly quiet. in fact, you should see a good amount of blue skies and sunshine until later in the day when more cloud coverage is going to arrive. and by the later evening hours, you might even see a few sprinkles to go along with those clouds. it's not going to be nearly as intense of a storm system as what we saw early this morning and last night. it's going to be lighter and more isolated in nature. we might pick up a hundredth of an inch. but really that's going to be it. it is not going to be crazy impactful. and again, it's going to be a mostly overnight mover. not to say an isolated shower or two can't stick around by thursday afternoon, but thursday is mostly going to feature those low hanging cloud coverage. the drizzle and the more misty conditions and not necessarily any appreciable rainfall. so do keep that in mind. thursday afternoon it will be a soggy one, but it's

not going to be a crazy heavy rainfall day. we are going to see heavier rainfall, though, arriving by later -- sorry, this graphic always makes me giggle -- by later thursday evening and into early friday morning. and it is going to continue to impact us throughout the early morning on friday. again, thursday not all too much. a few of those lower hanging clouds and drizzly conditions, but the more widespread and heavier rainfall likely going to arrive later thursday evening into the overnight hours and continuing into early friday morning as well. we could pick up upwards of an inch to an inch and a half of rain across our north bay communities. south bay community, you'll be lucky to pick up 0.5 of an inch. heavier rain likely going to stick around very early friday morning. it looks like models are beginning to trend a little bit quicker, beginning to wrap up this storm system by the later morning hours on friday. you might see a few more peeks of sunshine friday afternoon before more rain heads our way into this upcoming weekend. again, throughout wednesday it's going to be mainly dry. and even throughout the day

thursday we're seeing those lighter showers, those mistier conditions, drearier conditions. it's not until the overnight hours thursday into friday that we are expecting heavier rain to fall, again, across our north bay communities. south bay communities lucky to pick up 0.5 an inch. more snow on the way for those of you excited about skiing or snowboarding over the coming days, you picked up about a foot of snowfall over the past 24 hours. over the next 24 hours, not nearly as eventful. still seeing a little bit of fresh powder and even more is on the way with that thursday and into friday storm system. that will be bringing upwards of half of a foot to nearly nine inches in some of those locations. so it is going to be seeing more fresh powder into the upcoming weekend. those of you who are heading on to the sierra, it is going to be loverly for you to enjoy that fresh powder. i am happy to say i'm a skier and i cannot wait to get out there and enjoy it myself. i don't have any trips planned right

now, but those of you who do, i'm jealous. the active weather in the bay area going to stick around through the rest of the week into the weekend. not a crazy washout scenario any single day, but there is going to be those overnight systems moving in. that's the good news with these upcoming storm systems. it's not going to be a daytime mover, and it's not crazy impactful because most of us don't have overnight plans. we'll be asleep when the rain is moving through. monday into tuesday, the last days of the year, it looks like drier weather will be moving in, which is really great news. if you've got new year's eve plans, things should be dry. and dry for christmas. overall great timing on the upcoming weather. max, on over to you. it's not weekend mornings, but you have sports for us. >> great to be here with you, thanks for that. the 49ers tell us some of their favorite christmas memories. and could san jose state prevail in a history making instant classic bowl game in hawaii.

for the second straight season, san jose state football spent their christmas week in hawaii. and this year's stay lasted a little bit longer as the spartans and south florida played the longest bowl game in college football history. weather a little bit better in honolulu than what we've been seeing in the bay area. bulls up 24-20, spartans noah mcneil franklin with the interception right here. he's tripped up inside the five. san jose state scores on the next play and takes their first lead of the game. final seconds, 27-24. trying to tie the game for south florida. kick right off the right upright and makes it through to tie the game and sends us to overtime. be there for a while. fourth and goal for san jose state. great catch

to keep the game alive. coleman had 12 catches for 119 yards. the game became the first bowl game to go to five overtimes. spartans needed that two-point conversion to force a sixth ot, but as you saw, the pass was knocked away in the end zone. south florida wins a thriller 41-39. san jose state loses the hawaii bowl for the second year in a row, finishing the season 7-6. former cal quarterback fernando mendoza will reportedly transfer to indiana. mendoza started 19 games for the golden bears over the last two years. he now joins a hoosiers team that reached the college football playoff this season. fernando's younger brother alberto is a backup qb at iu. tomorrow is christmas, and our matt lively had some 49ers players take some trips down memory lane, asking them what's the best gift they ever received. >> i was in a group home, bro, and i was going to go move in

with my adoptive parents, bro, and they got me a phone. iphone 3. greatest christmas i've ever had. >> i'd have to say it was like a little 50 cc dirt bike. i was 12 years old, and i had no idea my parents were going to get me it. didn't even run across my mind. walked downstairs and i seen it outside of the garage. and they said it was mine, i'm like, oh, that's lit. i never thought you would get me that. i still think about that little dirt bike. >> probably an xbox, just because it's probably the most used thing that i've ever gotten. >> how old were you? >> i think i was like 12 or 13. andbox 360. >> what do you want for christmas this year? >> me? man, some money. some money. >> greenlaw is a free agent after this season, so he may need to wait a few months for that present. >> yeah, he needs to get in line behind all of us, because we want money and we need it more. >> that would be really nice,

sara. >> yes. thank you so much, max. there is no stopping the christmas spirit for one elf. where he's been spotted around town as their official elf on the shelf.

(♪♪) from celebration moments... ...to joyride moments. your moments are worth protecting against rsv. rsv is a highly contagious virus if you're 60 or older with certain chronic conditions, you're at higher risk of being hospitalized from rsv. and there are no prescription rsv treatments. you know how to protect against covid and flu. so ask your pharmacist or doctor about scheduling pfizer's rsv vaccine, too. because moments like these matter.

okay, this is going to be for the parents out there, although i assume if you have younger kids you're probably sleeping right now. because they wake up early. but if you do have younger kids you know about the elf on the shelf. the sheer panic of trying to track down one of these things at any

of the stores during the holidays. they're insanely popular, and unless you plan ahead they can be hard to come by this time of year. and once you have one, which is the initial hard part, the name of the game is that you get very creative when it comes to setting them up and sticking them somewhere and documenting it for everyone to see. so we compiled some elf on the shelf greatest hits. this was last year at the phoenix zoo. >> oh. >> yeah, you can see him there. there he goes. >> oh, yeah. >> the staff put their elf on an actual horse. it was swinging around on his ear. thankfully the horse was stationary. barely noticed. >> i was going to say, i don't think he noticed. >> the elf was loving life up there. this was the gilbert police department in arizona. he was up to no good. i think he was in the back. so maybe heavily drinking or some sort of similar activity. >> too much eggnog. >> too much eggnog. and then

you have this guy. >> yeah. >> who is he? his name is dale. >> good old dale. >> yeah. he lives in north carolina and works for his town's park and rec department. >> of course. >> he clearly takes his job entirely too seriously. his boss came up with the idea of having him become a real life elf on a shelf or in this case like a roof and bench. dale has popped up at a couple places around town, which he say, if dale is to be believed, is a hit. >> they loved it. they're honking and hooting and screaming and i think the adults like it probably more than the kids do, actually. >> it wouldn't be christmas eve on your local news, of course, without norad's santa tracker. we needed to check in to see where he was. so here's a live look at saint nick. right now he and his reindeer are flying over arizona. >> oh. >> where should he stop? >> there's a lot of places you can stop in arizona. i lived there for a while. there's

some wonderful places. >> i lived in south tempe for like a beat. >> new mexico, that's where i lived for two years. and i drove through arizona a couple times. >> he's on his way to new mexico after this. >> oh, is he? >> looks like he's moving east. maybe a southeast trajectory. maybe over the southern border sooner than later. >> i'll make sure my friends are asleep right now. >> i can't tell what he's doing. the volunteers at peterson space force base in colorado have been taking calls from children around the world urgently wondering when saint nick will slide down their chimneth presents. which again, hopefully they're sleeping at this hour. >> yes. >> >> police have arrested 26-year-old luigi mangione after a mcdonald's employee recognized him and called the local police. however, since his arrest, some people attracted to the fit young suspect have flooded the mcdonald's with negative reviews, writing things like "more like narc-donald's."