Christmas for some 600 children will be a bit merrier thanks to Port Arthur Police Department’s Blue Santa program.

Two hundred fifty families signed up for assistance this year, the highest number the department has seen, PAPD Det. Mike Hebert said.

Officers knew the need would be high for residents who lost so much during Tropical Storm Harvey’s flooding in a city where more than 80 percent of its residents were affected.

Help came from different places.

“Huntsman Corp. came in last week with an amazing donation,” Hebert said. “When Huntsman came in we knew then that we’d be OK.”

The Krewe of Kewes also helped, he said, with their annual Fill-A-Float toy drive and an anonymous donor gave $15,000.

The line of about 250 families snaked from the Carl Parker Center’s parking lot on the Lamar State College Port Arthur campus to the Department Club where the toy distribution was set. In previous years the toy giveaway as held at the Robert A. “Bob” Bowers Civic Center but the facility was damaged during Harvey.

Inside the Department Club, children posed for photos with a Santa in blue and parents picked up their bundle of toys.

Brittany Brown and son Mason, 4, were one of the families.

“This means everything to us,” Brown said. “His birthday is right around Christmas. Things have been tough since the storm.”

Without the assistance Brown would not be able to provide toys for Christmas, she said.

Brown lives in an upstairs apartment — the bottom floor flooded, and she’s basically living inside a construction zone, she said.

Bicycles were also distributed and Jatayvious Venzant, 4, proudly rode his bike in the large room, smiling ear to ear. His dad, Rickey Turner, and baby sister Keziah Turner, were following closely behind.

“It’s a blessing,” Turner said. “Everybody I know lost something.”