I grew up rather poor, but we called my Dad “Father Christmas.” He could handcraft a holiday better than any of the other elves I have ever known, which is really saying something because I know a lot of elves. I am one. Admittedly, I am rather tall to be an elf, but elfing is a culture as well as a race. This is my 10th Christmas working for Santa as co-director of Give A Little Christmas (GAL for short).

Everybody knows that Santa’s North Pole elves make and deliver toys to all of the good girls and boys. A fact that is less well known is that population growth has caused a lot of necessary cutbacks. Santa can no longer deliver a treeful of toys to every child, so they had to cut it back to one toy each.

This toy shortage leaves parents responsible for the rest of the toys under their family Christmas trees, and not all parents can afford to do their part. That’s where we come in.

GAL helps Santa in Wilson and parts of nearby Davidson and Rutherford counties. We are a toy collecting and distributing charity that focuses on families who rarely qualify for larger national charities.

Bubbles and I created this charity to provide for the families who have just experienced those little life emergencies like totaled cars or broken bones and physical therapy expenses that cut their budget in half. We also cover a lot of big emergencies like cancer, broken backs, house fires, tornadoes, domestic violence, and more.

Most years, we get to spend a lot more time mingling in the community, hosting toy drives year-round, and throwing big parties to gather toys and donations. The Covid-19 pandemic has been hard on our little charity. We already have doubled our normal number of kids and we have been having to find new and creative ways to collect the toys we need for them.

We decided to have a drive-up toy drop at Shiloh Music Center last year, and Santa came to join us. We will be repeating the event on December 12th. Santa said he will be stopping by frequently, and also next door at Courtney’s, to check on our toy collection boxes there. We will also be collecting toys at The Christmas Place after the parade on December 11.

To read more about Give A Little Christmas, visit our website www.givealittlenashville.com/give-a-little-christmas.

Donation Sites

Toy Donation Sites

Toy Collection Sites