If you dump your garbage outside a Hall County compactor site on Christmas morning, not only will Santa put you on his naughty list for next year, you also may get a ticket.

All of the county's 13 trash collection sites will be open from noon until 5 p.m. on Christmas Day and accepting both trash and recyclable materials.

Larry Farmer, who retired Friday as Hall County's solid waste director, said the practice of being open on holidays began last year at the request of county officials.

When the collection sites were closed on holidays, people would dump their bags of garbage outside the locked fences. The dumping got so out of hand, it would result in the need for a Hall County deputy to be posted at some sites.

"Some of the locations the garbage would pile up, but at some of the locations there wouldn't even be one trash bag put out," he said.

Farmer added that trash most often was dumped at collection sites at Sardis and Blackshear Place. He said that while some bags still were dumped outside the trash collection sites last year, he feels being open half a day on holidays probably helped.

He urged people not to deposit trash outside the sites, explaining that it is considered littering and could earn the person dumping it a ticket. "Just please use (the collection sites) from noon to 5 p.m.," he said.

The trash collection sites accept only household garbage. In addition, a range of materials can be recycled at each location, including newspaper, magazines, plastic, glass, aluminum and, the one commodity never in short supply on Christmas Day, cardboard boxes.