Ring each year are some of our better spots. Reporter but many stores asked the Salvation Army to pull their bell ringers because they feared for their safety. We cut our days short at some of the stores because we wanted to get our kettle workers out of the area before the demonstrations would start. [ screaming ] reporter the Salvation Army in oakland saw the lowest donations in its Red Kettle Campaign ever. They are down 67,000 compared to last year. Thats a 55 drop. It will affect our our, um, shelter and the programs right here in this building. Reporter the saligot hit especially hard when people the Salvation Army got hit especially hard when people demonstrated at the oakland and san leandro walmarts on black friday and that weekend, the Salvation Army got hit especially hard. Those are huge days. We make 500 to 600 at the kettle at each site each day which would be a huge loss for us. Reporter during the six weeks of the Red Kettle Campaign, there were roughly 20 protests in the oakland area. The protests so far have been peaceful. Right now they are just chanting and blocking the intersection of 14th street and broadway. And how is the Salvation Army so sure that the protests play a big part in this . Well, during that same time, neighboring cities like hayward and fremont did not see a drop in donations. Only oakland when it comes to Alameda County that its down. Live here in oakland, im da lin, kpix 5. Other cities saw donations go down as well including San Francisco where donations are down by 20 compared to last year. Donations are also down in marin county. The Salvation Army blames the bad weather for a 36 drop. They say all those days of rain kept people inside and made it difficult to recruit bell ringing volunteers. Tragedy for a bay area family who lost their home in a fire while they were on christmas vacation. Flames were shooting 30 feet into the air and engulfed this home in San Franciscos potrero hill about 6 00 this morning. The firefighters managed to keep the fire from destroying other homes, although one home did have some damage to it. They say things could have been a lot worse if the neighbors had not sprung into action. My neighbor and i started knocking on doors to wake people up. Crews rescued one little cat from the home. There he is. The cause of the fire is under investigation. The family of a woman killed during a shootout after a bank robbery is helping other families this christmas. They gave out gifts along with Stockton Police to people who have lost loved ones to violent crime. More than 30 families received gift cards and baskets this year. Misty holt singh was taken hostage after a bank robbery. Misty was killed during the shootout with police. Investigators say the robbers used her as a human shield. Video from inside the bank showed her pleading with robbers to let her go. She was the only hostage to die in the heist and highspeed chase that followed. More homeless camps are expected to be cleared out in san jose come the new year. Earlier this month, hundreds of people were cleared from a homeless camp called the jungle. Four camps have been cleared since then including one last weekend. City leaders say that next year, they will use the tactic of cleaning out encampments before they grow too large. St. Anthony serve its christmas dinners in a new dining hall today. Meals were prepared for 4,000 people. This is the 65th year st. Anthonys has served Christmas Meals for the needy. Another advantage of the new facility is theres room for mo volunteers. Its not santa but they may be almost as popular. At least for today. The post office is making Christmas Day deliveries and Christian Hartnett went along for the ride. Reporter its san joses version of santas workshop. So youre doing routes here . Reporter these post office elves are lining up their Christmas Day deliveries. I like the spirit of christmas. Reporter guy lewis isnt santa than isnt a sleigh. But its just about as close as anyone will get to the real thing. Im getting a good feeling because people are smiling. Reporter no one is expecting this knock on the door. Good morning, merry christmas. Reporter but only the dog complains. Delivering on Christmas Day . Guaranteed. Reporter this family is getting an unexpected special delivery. Its from my son to his girlfriend amanda. He was just telling her last night that it wasnt going to be here for christmas so i think he is going to be really happy. Theres always hope on Christmas Day. Yes. We want to see people happy get what they asked for. Reporter deliveries were scheduled well into the afternoon. Post office helping to put its stamp on the holiday. God bless you all. Merry christmas. Reporter Christian Hartnett, kpix 5. Thousands of people who have to work on Christmas Day are getting a holiday treat. Volunteers have spent the past few days packing holiday cookies into gift bags. They were delivered today to people who work in sacramento. Its the brainchild of a man who got the idea after stopping at a fastfood restaurant a few years ago on Christmas Day. And they have a sign there that said we will be open Christmas Day. That was sad. This is the fourth year for the cookie project. Its now spread to all 50 states. About 7,000 cookies were delivered today. So what do you do today if you dont celebrate christmas . A jewish deli in berkeley is one option. Sauls is open today got started with a little musical jam session to get the Lunch Service rolling. Sauls has made this a Christmas Day tradition. Business as you see certainly brisk weather we stopped by this afternoon. A lot of people are really surprised to see how much is going on here on december 25th. The streets are quiet as can be. You look all around, you drive up here, you ride your bike up here, and just totally dead silence. And then you come in here and its like a big party. Music ended several hours ago. Sauls is still open so if you are in the east bay and hungry, you have options. San francisco glide memorial hosted its traditional christmas dinner. It offers to feed anyone who needs a meal. As usual the dining hall was packed. More than 5,000 meals were served. Today children across the country of course found out if they were naughty or nice and what santa left under the tree. Well, now were finding out what was the most popular. Jill wagner tells us what knocked barbie off the top spot this year. Reporter its the stuff Christmas Memories are made of. Say cheese reporter a photo op and a chance for kids to deliver their Christmas Wish list straight to the big guy himself. I want just a bike. An xbox. A soccer ball. Reporter after weeks of listening to kids rattle off their requests, santa says theres a trend. Frozen is hot. Reporter the National Retail federation found that frozen merchandise is the number one gift for girls this year pushing barbie to second place for the first time in more than a decade. For boys, lego reigns supreme. A lego ship. And a lego city. Reporter but its not all about toys and gadgets. What is your favorite part about christmas . Um, spending time with my family. Reporter but most kids tell us the best part of christmas is still the presents. A barbie doll, huh . Okay. Reporter in new york, jill wagner, cbs news. If you got a gift card for christmas and youre thinking eh, i wont shop there, walmart says, hey, come get one of ours instead. So for the next few weeks walmart will Exchange Cards for more than 200 stores and restaurants in exchange for one of their gift cards. You get about 95 of the cards value but its going to vary by retailer. For example, amazon. Com card will get you up to 95 , some brands only 70 . Hows this for a Christmas Gift . The maker of the popular game cars against humanity is giving people a piece of a private island. A very small piece. Its doling out a square foot parcel to donors to its holiday fundraiser. They bought the six acre island off the coast of maine and renamed it hawaii 2. I like that. Hawaii 2. Which only gets us one foot. Dont put a tent. All the presents unwrapped but theres an unwanted gift left over, thats trash. Thats right. Before you toss those boxes on the curb, you will want to hear this. Your leftover holiday trash could be an invitation for burglars. Oh, they said that they wanted a white christmas. But maybe you be careful what you ask for. This is i80 headed to the mountains. How some managed to maintain a Little Christmas cheer through it all. Made some good skiing up in the sierra once you make it there safely system around here it is cold tonight. Colder overnight tonight. 33 in livermore. Thats the coldest night in 323 days. And it gets even colder in the extended forecast. Find out how chilly we get. Well, im your Nosy NeighborMike Sugerman. Arent you a little curious what your neighbors got for christmas this year . I am. [ knocking ] reporter so we went knocking on doors to find out. ,,,,,,,, the mountains. This is kingvale how about we take you live to the drive on interstate 80 if you are headed up to the mountains. This is what it looks like. This is kingvale right now. Roads have been clear for most of the day and as you see, traffic light but once folks get there or if theyre already in tahoe, there is some new snow on the ground. Video from northstar, the mountain busy with skiers and snowboarders. They got their white christmas. Almost all the resorts got snow from the latest storm. A half foot was at alpine meadows. Very nice. Traffic was anything but smooth. Ian schwartz shows us the troubles. Ian schwartz said it caused major problems people driving in the high country. Reporter it didnt snow a whole lot but when it did come down, it came down fast and there was a lot of drivers on i 80 who werent ready for it. Its beginning to look a lot like a traffic mess in the sierra. I was stuck for like an hour and a half and it was not moving hardly at all. Reporter she wasnt alone. Taillights were on 80 for miles like a strand of christmas lights. Several wrecks brought traffic to a stop. We decided to stretch our legs feel the snow. So were from Orange County so we wanted to see the snow. Merry christmas reporter others kept the Christmas Spirit strong even with nowhere to go. Reporter and while we can all complain about traffic, one woman is just happy to be alive. Thanks to god. Reporter this person lost control of her car, drove the family to christmas in the snow. The car flipped several times before landing on the side of the road. When we my son said, we still alive, we still alive. That was ian schwartz reporting there. Mostly clear night predicted tonight in the sierra. All right. Check out San Franciscos embarcadero today. Palm trees along the embarcadero and flags whipping around in the wind. The blustery weather, that didnt keep people indoors and it wasnt that bad really well, maybe earlier it was. They did have to bundle up. [ laughter ] he is overselling it, i think, paul. Its nice to be on the west coast with sunshine. Are you kidding me . Beautiful today. Heres the best part about living in the bay area. We call this cold. We bundle up oh, its so chilly outside. Call your friend in minneapolis and say its chilly. It hit 61 today. It was bonechilling cold. They will be like it will be 61 in may. 61 the high in hayward and san rafael. The wind made it feel not as warm. San jose 58. San francisco 57. If you dont have the fastpass right now you are sitting in a lot of traffic trying to get into San Francisco. Now, it will be very cold tonight. Look at these low temperatures. Near or below freezing in napa, santa rosa, fairfield. You may be wondering why its colder tonight. We wont have as much wind. The wind mixes up the atmosphere and we get a wind chill but the actual air temperature isnt as cold. No wind and all the cold air settles down to the surface where we live. Its all about High Pressure off to the west for the next several days our source of air coming from canada continuing through the weekend. Afternoons will be 60. Its not really that cold. Were wimps around here. But it will feel chilly outside especially in the morning. Next week here comes the change. With a secondary push of low pressure coming down from canada, thats going to give us a real shove of arctic air and that will knock down our temperatures about five more degrees. Highs will be in the low to mid 50s. That is chilly for us. Overnight lows away from the water will be the upper 20s to low 30s. That is cold for us. Thats what we can look forward to coming up next week. For tomorrow, another day in the upper 50s. San rafael 58. San jose 58. Redwood city 56. San francisco 56. A little milder over the weekend around 60. Mornings are chilly, afternoons are pleasant. Then look at the change for the final three days of 2014. Monday, tuesday, wednesday, mid 50s for highs. Thats it. Overnight lows near or below freezing away from the water and new years day more sunshine highs around 60. We need more rainfall. We are not going to get that but it will feel like winter at least for us. This is cold i like we like it that way. Yeah. [ laughter ] freezing for us is rare. Good deal. Thank you. Well, this months storms have certainly helped put a little dent in the drought but theres some other benefits. Our betty yu tells us all the rain has led to incredibly old rare discoveries along the coast. Reporter all of that wind and rain that pounded santa cruz hitting those bluffs and the mountains exposed extremely rare fossils. In fact, one scientist says that in the last week alone, he found three of them right here on a public beach. Walking and looking down and then below my feet and found a little baby [ nonenglish language ] tooth. Reporter he was stunned to find this rare tooth from a shark similar to a great white. He believes its as many as 12 million years old this is very smooth and dull. So this tells me this tooth came interest somewhere up in so this probably came from somewhere up in the santa cruz mountains, the rain eroded it from a cliffside near stream and it tumbled down and made its way to the boardwalk. Reporter he is a marine biologist. He has been looking for fossils twice a month for the last 20 years. He only has three of these in his collection. All discovered in the last week. I definitely think this large a storm had something to do with finding them. Reporter he said it created perfect conditions for Treasure Hunting. He also came across this 5,000 yearold bison tooth and part of a rib from a stellar sea cow which is now extinct. Scientists say Santa Cruz County is a hotbed for fossils because the area was once a sea floor. In santa cruz, betty yu, kpix 5. Looks like a nice day out there. Only in california. I know. Like over the holidays can you walk barefoot on the beach. Rub it in to your relatives no, dont. A day after the movie premieres online select movies show the interview. Did people line up to see it . You bet. But why this movie made some other theater patrons upset has nothing to do with the content. Plus, definitely not the gift you want after christmas. The flu. But if you do catch the bug, some good news. There is a new way to fight it off. ,, female announcer its time to make room for the new mattress models during sleep trains huge year end Clearance Sale, get beautyrest, posturepedic, even tempurpedic mattress sets at low clearance prices. Save even more on floor samples, demonstrators, and closeout inventory. Plus, free sameday delivery, setup, and removal of your old set. Why wait for the new models . Sleep trains year end Clearance Sale is on now . Guaranteed your ticket to a better nights sleep its annual toy drive brougn an alltime high of 15thou this community a very special delivery from lefty odouls. At its annual toy drive they brought in an alltime high of 15,000 donations. This Community Center in San Franciscos bayview was one of the places that was a beneficiary of the generosity. It was the first time they have partnered with leftys for the holiday. No matter what the toy is, it can make a huge difference. For a lot of kids it can be a sad time because they dont get what other kids get so its nice to see kids get a nice toy and feel good about things and offer some hope on a day and time when theres not always as much hope to go around. The toy drive benefits those who are the most in need this time of year. Its in its 14th year. So it is the question tonight that Everyone Wants an answer to what did you get for christmas . How he doesnt have the door slammed in his face i dont know but Mike Sugerman unwraps the answers. Reporter merry christmas, ladies and gentlemen. Time for the annual kpix 5 what did you get for christmas story where we go to a random city, knock on random doors and say, what did you get for christmas . Drum roll, please. [ drum roll ] reporter daly city san mateo county. Lets go. Come on, lets go. This looks like a good one. [ knock knock ] we want to come in and look around. Come on in and look around. Really . Sure, why not. Reporter what did you get for christmas . I got a soccer ball. Kick the ball. Boom ha ha reporter firewood for christmas . Firewood for christmas. Reporter thats like a lump of coal. Theres that many spare the airs that its nice to have an open fire on christmas. Into the far turn a winner by two lengths. No. [ indiscernible ] you got