Christmas comes this time each year, and with it the practice of gifting.
While the holiday invokes ideals far greater than gift giving — faith, family and community — children still dream of what they’ll awaken to under their trees on Christmas morning.
With the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program, 1,900 children in Greenville County and hundreds more in Oconee and Pickens counties have their Christmas wishes granted by community members who pick their names off an Angel Tree and go out shopping in an effort to become the child’s personal secret Santa Claus.
Angel Trees are set up in a variety of public spaces, including at retailers like Walmart, and churches. On those trees sit several paper angels. On each is written a child’s name, age and wish list. Anyone can pick an angel from a tree to sponsor the Christmas of a child within the community, with presents to be brought to a predetermined drop-off site in the days leading up to Christmas and eventually landing under family Christmas trees.
Donors don’t participate for any kind of recognition, as “we rarely meet the Angel Tree donors,” said Maj. Mike Harris, Salvation Army area commander.
“For them, it’s the satisfaction that there’s a child that’s having a Christmas because of them,” he said. “When I was a kid growing up, we didn’t have a lot of money, (but) my parents put everything into making it the most exciting day of the year, and that revolved around us kids getting gifts under the tree. The idea of some kid not having that is awful to me — and these donors, bless their hearts, go out there and make sure that kid has the best day of their year.”
The Angel Tree program started in 1979 when Majs. Charles and Shirley White set up the first iteration of it at a mall in Lynchburg, Virginia. Some 700 children received gifts that year from generous donors, and the Whites expanded the program to their next Salvation Army assignment, in Nashville, Tennessee, three years later.
Since then, the program has expanded nationwide, now bringing joy on Christmas morning to more than 1 million children annually who would otherwise likely go without gifts.
While it’s preferred that donors purchase all items on a child’s wish list — some might ask for three, while others ask for seven — Harris said he “doesn’t want to stop people from being generous just because they might have a limit as to what they can spend.
“It’s the preference, of course, but we’re very mindful that some people just want to be kind and do something. If you can’t afford to get all (wish list items), we do have ways of augmenting” the lot a child gets, he said, through a partnership with Toys for Tots.
Many Angel Trees within Greenville, Oconee and Pickens counties are set up by businesses, offices and churches that have been part of the program for years. But there’s room for more, Harris said.
“For anyone that would like to have an Angel Tree: If you set up the tree, we’ll make sure you get angels,” he said.
To locate an Angel Tree and become a donor, visit the program’s interactive map at www.tsamm.org/angeltree.
To put an Angel Tree on site at your office, church or retail business, contact Leslie Poppe at lpoppe@uss.salvationarmy.org
