The Christmas season always brings a spirit of celebration, as well as a spirit of giving. One Pittsburgh-area restaurant has found a way to transform itself into a place that provides both.

For the third straight year, 202 Hometown Tacos on Lincoln Avenue in Bellevue has become a Christmas pop-up bar, beginning in mid-November until the end of the year. 

The bar closed down for four days to complete the transformation, and the staff got together to decorate both dining rooms and the bar area from top to bottom with Christmas decorations, wrapping paper, inflatable items and any other holiday objects that may come to mind.

"I couldn't do it without my manager, and I have a good team around me," said owner David Caligiuri. "They throw the ideas out there and I'm blessed enough to run with them and bring them to light."

"It was a process, but it was a fun process," said Monica Fields, a server and bartender who's participating for the first time. "We all got to hang out and turn the music up and have some food and just decorate. They brought it all in and we just decorated. We had a ball with it."

The community at large has had a ball with it, also, as patrons from within the area and beyond come to enjoy the atmosphere.

"It's so much fun," said Ginny Kutzer, a Bellevue resident. "There's so much excitement here. You talk to any one of the servers or the bartenders or anybody, and everybody's excited because they all participated in helping to decorate all of this."

"You feel like a little kid all over again," said Peg Curry, who also lives nearby. "I think they're very happy to be part of a little tiny neighborhood like this and have as much fun as we do."

"It's pretty packed, definitely, wall-to-wall," said Fields. "But the people come in, and they know what they're here for. They know we're trying our best to serve them as fast as possible and get their needs as soon as possible."

On Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights during the six-week celebration, celebrity bartenders are brought in, ranging from local volunteers to influencers with large followings on social media. The main objective is to raise money for an "Angel Tree" program, which provides children with Christmas gifts.

"Every week until Christmas from 7 to 9, they're here," said Caligiuri. "We promote them, get a DJ. We have live music sometimes. It's just a fun time to try to raise the money for these kids."

The "angels" do not have to live within any relative areas to receive presents, and there are no restrictions to be eligible. Caligiuri said they created a website for customers and donors to register children's names, and the total exceeded 200 within three days. 

"We try to give every kid 200 dollars' worth of gifts and gift cards, and we've been able to do it every year," he said. "We don't do a standard area or anything like that. You could be from wherever. We want to just help the kids."

On Sunday, Dec. 21, Santa Claus will arrive to deliver the Angel Tree gifts. Name submissions and donations for gifts will be received until the day before to help as many children as possible, and Caligiuri says it's worth all the time spent planning, working long hours with his staff and raising money.

"It's enjoyable," he said. "Being able to give the parents these gifts that day, and their faces and emotions. It's special."

"It's thrilling, knowing that we get to help the community and the families in need," said Fields, a mother of three. "They help me, and I love that, knowing there's people out there knowing they can rely on us. Every little bit counts and it's great. It's fulfilling."

"I think that makes you want to come even more and support them, and I think it makes everything worthwhile," said Curry. "It makes us very proud, actually."

"It gets busier every year and bigger, and who knows what will happen next year, how many kids we have and how much money we're able to raise?" Caligiuri said. "It's a good problem to have, a very good problem to have."