Yule want to see these photos of the SF fire station that won the 2024 SF Fire Department Holiday Decorating Contest, plus pictures and video of the other runner-up stations that decked the halls hard to bring joy to the world.The 49 fire stations all across San Francisco have rebooted the old SF Fire Department Holiday Decorating Contest, which harks and heralds back to the late 1940s, when an old-time holiday decorations contest lit up San Francisco Fire Department stations all over town. The modern version of the contest is now in its fifth consecutive year since returning in 2020, and has been won in previous years by fire stations that had snow machines blowing fake snow, or even trucked in real snow from Lake Tahoe to win these increasingly competitive reindeer games.Photo by Joe Kukura, SFistSo SFist went to see the finalists of this full-blown, four-alarm, holiday razzle-dazzle light spectacular, whose spirited displays will make your nights merry and bright.Mayor Daniel Lurie. Photo by Joe Kukura, SFistAnd who did we run into? Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie, who served as one of the judges for the SF Fire Department Holiday Decorating Contest, along with KTVU’s Sal Castaneda, and the SFFD and SFPD’s Los Bomberos de San Francisco. The SF Fire Department is expected to announce the first-place winner at some point on Christmas Eve. They have not done so yet, and we will update this post once they do. But we do have pictures and video of your five finalists, so you can choose for yourself.Photo by Joe Kukura, SFistSTATION 35 (Pier 22½, The Embarcadero at Harrison Street)Station 35 is “the world’s only floating fire station” (or at least that’s what SFFD says) right next to the Bay Bridge, and home to Fireboat 3, a.k.a. the Saint Francis. That vessel received quite the fa-la-la-la-facelift for the holiday decorating contest.Image: Joe Kukura, SFistBut that boat is just one part of Station 35’s freaking festive makeover. Holiday lights cover every window of the station, and a Christmas tree sits as the cherry on top of the station’s southern end.Photo by Joe Kukura, SFistOn the northern end, projected holiday characters are dancing like sugarplums on the side of the building.Photo by Joe Kukura, SFistStation 35 kind of got jobbed in the 2022 contest, as the Saint Francis got called for a rescue during the judging, and was forced to remove its inflatable Grinch and leave the contest to go save lives. So maybe the judges will find some magic in their old top hats and reward the station’s efforts this year.Photo by Joe Kukura, SFistSTATION 39 (1091 Portola Drive)Go tell it on the Mount Davidson that Sherwood Forest’s Station 39 won this contest in 2023 with its delightfully tacky holiday stylings. Their station offers quite an assortment of mixed nuts, with Frostys, Santas, trees, and the animated light spectacular seen below. Photo by Joe Kukura, SFistStation 40 (2155 18th Avenue)There’s plenty to unpack at Station 40 that cannot be captured in one photo, so let’s break this one down into sections. Photo by Joe Kukura, SFistUp on the housetop, Drosselmeier and his faithful Dalmatian buddy are ready to crack the nuts on any fires that should occur in the Inner Parkside neighborhood.Photo by Joe Kukura, SFistWe’ve also got a big ol’ inflatable Santa in a fire truck, with a separate, seemingly less inflated Santa clinging for his life on a perch beneath. And that’s a light-up ladder in the lower left, so get your minds out of the gutter, people.Photo by Joe Kukura, SFistStation 40 also boasts a larger-than-life snow globe topped with a jumbo peppermint candy.Photo by Joe Kukura, SFistStation 18 (1935 32nd Avenue)The Outer Sunset’s Station 18 is a meticulously decorated onslaught of red and green that can only be fully appreciated with all of its animated LED blinkies going at full blast.   Photo by Joe Kukura, SFistAnd Station 18 surely the biggest “tree” of the bunch, which is impressive enough, but its multicolored animated snowfalls projected onto the station facade and sidewalk complete the winter wonderland scene.Image via SF Fire Department via ThreadsSTATION 7 (2300 Folsom Street)Really tasteful work here at Station 7 between the Mission and SoMa. It’s not going to blow eight tiny reindeer out of the sky or anything, but there’s a certain classic quality to this warming holiday glow.Photo by Joe Kukura, SFistThe winning stations will split $4,000 worth of prize money, money that will be awarded to the charity of those stations' choice. The winning charities are not yet announced, though previous years’ charities that won the money include La Casa de las Madres, the San Francisco Firefighters Cancer Prevention Foundation, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, and (of course) the San Francisco Firefighters Toy Program.Related: Photos: Every Single SF Fire Station That’s Decked Out for the Holiday Decorations Competition [SFist]Images: Joe Kukura, SFist