Free Family Christmas Store planned

The fourth annual Family Christmas Store event will be held next Friday and Saturday at The Courtyard event center on the east side of the Holton Square. Tell your friends and neighbors!

“Our goal is to help those who need some assistance during the holidays and don’t have the extra funds for gifts,” said Erin Manning, who organizes the event with Joan Bailey. “Kids and loved ones shouldn’t go without. While we can’t provide the latest technology or the newest high-dollar trend, we can help put gifts under the tree and lighten the stress and burden of how to provide. Life can be tough on all of us, and some are just flat tired or an illness away from a financial setback.”

The free event is being held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 8, and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 9, or until the gifts are gone, at The Courtyard, 426 Pennsylvania Ave. (east side of the Holton Town Square).

It is a “come and go” event where needy families can select new, like-new and gently-used gifts for family members, Manning said. 

Manning said that Family Christmas Store volunteers accept donations for gifts throughout the year and host fund-raising garage sales with items they receive that aren’t used as gifts. Those funds are used to purchase gifts, advertise and rent space for the event. 

“We have seen the love this community has for others with the many, many gifts donated and the support. This season is our fourth year, and we have big plans for the upcoming years,” Manning said. “In our previous three years, we have gifted more than 900 gifts. Unfortunately, we ran out last year before our second day of the event.”

Manning said that she and all the volunteers started the Family Christmas Store in 2020 with a specific vision. 

“Growing up with a single mom for many years, I can remember finding a grocery bag gifted by someone anonymously by the door with food in it for a holiday meal. What a blessing that was for all of us, but it definitely lightened the burden on my mom that I didn’t understand as a young child,” Manning said. “When my boys’ dad died, my son, Seth, wanted to get me something for Christmas so my family took him to a similar event and he brought back a wooden sleigh. It didn’t have a box and it wasn’t new, but it was hand-picked by him and given with love in his heart and remains a favorite holiday decoration all these years later.” 

Manning said it can be difficult to “adopt” families for Christmas when you don’t know what the family members specifically want or need. With that in mind, she started organizing the Family Christmas Store as a way to reuse, regift and “share our blessings with others and provide a place they can come and hand pick for their loved ones.”

There is no application process and no personal information is needed to take part in the free event next week. 

“We don’t feel it’s our place to decide who is in greater need. We understand the need for that does exist in many other areas, but, for us, we just want to gift and bring more smiles to the holidays. We ask that those who are in need this season pay it forward when they are able,” she said.

For more information about the Family Christmas Store, please text Manning at 785-548-5382 or message her on Facebook.