FLORENCE — Carolyn “Sissie” Horrigan remembers one December years ago when Santa Claus strolled down Main Street with Mrs. Claus, greeting people and delivering presents to those naughty and nice.

She said a young boy in the window of Fitzwilly’s watched with awe as his father waved the Christmas couple into the restaurant. The father offered Santa a drink, but he promptly replied, “Oh no, Santa doesn’t drink.”

Horrigan knows the interaction so well because she was the woman in the Mrs. Claus costume and her husband, John Horrigan, was working a night as the neighborhood Santa Claus, bringing presents to children and reading from the copy of “The Night Before Christmas” in downtown Northampton.

John brought presents to Northampton children on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning each year until his death in 2012. But in a way, he’s still here handing out gifts thanks to Sissie Horrigan’s annual donation to the Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund in honor of her husband’s love for the jolly holiday.

Named after a former business manager at the Gazette, the Toy Fund began in 1933 to help families in need during the Depression. Today, the fund distributes vouchers worth $50 to qualifying families for each child from age 1 to 14.

“I got him the suit one year at a discount place and when he opened it, you would have thought I have given him a million bucks. Every year after that he played Santa Claus,” Horrigan said.

Carolyn and John Horrigan, who are unrelated to another Horrigan couple profiled for the Toy Fund in Tuesday’s paper, are high school sweethearts who celebrated 44 years of marriage before John passed. Their Christmas celebrations packed their house with Horrigan’s six siblings and their families. John would be out before Christmas, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day visiting houses or organizations such as the now-closed Fraternal Order of Eagles, but he would return home to have Christmas dinner with his family and perform as Santa Claus one last time for the day.

John originally dressed up for his family and friends when his nieces and nephews were young enough to still believe in Santa. As word about John’s act spread around the neighborhood, other families called John asking to hand out presents at their homes.

According to Horrigan, parents would leave a bag of toys on the front steps to hand out. John gave out each present before reading the classic Christmas story. If the children wished, they sat on Santa’s lap and asked the jolly old elf for a present.

Born the day after Christmas, John Horrigan often sacrificed his birthday celebration for his Santa duties. Horrigan said John spent a couple of birthdays giving out toys with the Northampton Police Department. She remembers her husband as a kind and humble man who loved spreading Christmas cheer.

“He was a very giving person, and he did love Christmas. That was his favorite. He just loved playing the part,” she said.

To be eligible for the Toy Fund, families must live in any Hampshire County community except Ware, or in the southern Franklin County towns of Deerfield, Sunderland, Whately, Shutesbury and Leverett, and in Holyoke in Hampden County.

The following stores are participating this year: A2Z Science and Learning Store, 57 King St., Northampton; Blue Marble/Little Blue, 150 Main St., Level 1, Northampton; High Five Books, 141 N. Main St., Florence; The Toy Box, 201 N. Pleasant St., Amherst; Comics N More, 64 Cottage St., Easthampton; Once Upon A Child,1458 Riverdale St., West Springfield; Plato’s Closet, 1472 Riverdale St., West Springfield; Sam’s Outdoor Outfitters, 227 Russell St., Hadley; Odyssey Bookshop, 9 College St., Village Commons, South Hadley; The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, 125 W. Bay Road, Amherst; World Eye Bookshop, 134 Main St., Greenfield; Holyoke Sporting Goods Co., and 1584 Dwight St. No. 1, Holyoke.

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.