Green Machine<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_7286-853x640.jpeg\")
William Rentie said Christmas should be all about being with one\u2019s family, on Thursday Dec. 18, 2025. Photo by Oscar Palma.<\/p>\n
This year, he hasn\u2019t made any plans for Christmas, but he hopes to see his mother and sister here in the city. After all, Christmas should be all about family, he said.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a widely-shared view around the BART plaza. With Christmas only a few days away, traditional holiday cheer is scarce among the people whose lives have led them to these streets. Still, there\u2019s plenty of nostalgia for Christmases past \u2014 and vague yearnings for miracles that would bring back the good times.<\/p>\n
A few feet from Rentie, Sara Schneider described her favorite Christmas memory: \u201cGoing to my grandparents\u2019 house, eating dinner and spending time with my family.\u201d They always ate turkey, cranberry sauce and stuffing, she recalled.<\/p>\n
With tears in her eyes, Schneider said she misses her grandparents, who died a few years ago. A Sacramento native, she and her husband ended up on San Francisco\u2019s streets after they lost their house, their dog (who was like a son) and her mother-in-law in the span of two months, about two and a half years ago.<\/p>\n
Schneider said that if she could work a Christmas miracle, she would get her old life back.<\/p>\n
![\"Person](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_7287-853x640.jpeg\")
Sara Schneider said she misses going to her grandparents house for Christmas, on Thursday Dec. 18, 2025. Photo bye Oscar Palma.<\/p>\n
A couple of blocks away on Julian Avenue between 14th and 15th streets, Marcos Antonio stood alone. He was high, leaning so far forward he almost touched his toes. The 27-year-old Oakland native has been living on the streets and using drugs for five or six years, since he lost his housing.<\/p>\n
Antonio\u2019s favorite Christmas memory was three years ago, opening presents with his daughter, Jenesis, a 3-year-old at the time. He said he hasn\u2019t been able to see her \u201cin a little minute,\u201d and that pains him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His Christmas miracle? \u201cTo have some money and go back to my daughter, get out of here,\u201d said Antonio. He said he wants to get off the streets, recover and move to Vallejo, where his daughter lives with her mom.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m missing her everyday,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Nearby, Megan Nickerson took in the sun by herself. The 61-year-old grew up in Mountain View, and has been using drugs since she was 17, when a boyfriend introduced her to heroin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nickerson, who now uses meth and fentanyl, plans to call her 16-year-old daughter, who lives in Windsor with her foster mom, on Christmas. The two haven\u2019t been together in five years, and Nickerson wants to change that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI keep saying I want to be clean for my daughter, but it\u2019s so hard to get out of it,\u201d said Nickerson, crying. \u201cI think about her all the time. Christmas brings all that up: Memories of your family, and what it meant to you, and what you did for Christmas and stuff. It\u2019s hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
A favorite Christmas memory, Nickerson said, was how her mom used to tell her that when the sky turned pink, it was Santa Claus making candy. As for a Christmas miracle, she said, she wants \u201cnot to look homeless.\u201d<\/p>\n
Across the street, Colby H. rested against a building.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s my birthday,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m turning 38.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_7282-853x640.jpeg\")
Colby H., a Wyoming native, said that for Christmas he wishes nothing more than a place for him and his girlfriend, on Thursday Dec. 18, 2025. Photo by Oscar Palma.<\/p>\n
Colby grew up in Wyoming, but moved to the Bay Area 15 years ago after he left a badly-paying job repairing windshields in Orange County. He has been on the streets most of his time here.<\/p>\n
Life on the streets has become harder since the city started to crack down more aggressively on drug use and dealing, he said. Recently, he\u2019s started to take methadone and has stopped using fentanyl. As for plans for his birthday and Christmas, he said he hoped to meet up with his girlfriend.<\/p>\n
More than anything what he wants is a place he can call home, where he can spend time with his girlfriend, he said.<\/p>\n
And, just as people\u2019s wishes mostly came full circle, so I returned to the BART plaza, where Rentie was sitting. What would he want for a Christmas miracle? I asked. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo dance with my dad again,\u201d he said. His father died several years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat song?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t hesitate: \u201c\u2018\u2019Dance with My Father<\/a>\u2018 by Luther Vandross.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Three](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1766664968_129_ML-Fundraising-2025-3-930x620.png\")
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