Santa Claus Shop Needs Help to Serve Local Families

The following was submitted by The Santa Claus Shop:

The Santa Claus Shop will open its doors to area families, providing its 47th consecutive year of complimentary holiday shopping. The shop serves more than 1,000 struggling family members and senior citizens from Summit, New Providence and Berkeley Heights who are referred by local social services agents. Santa Claus Shop guests personally select gifts for their family, which include a household item, new clothing and a new toy and book for each child. 

The Shop exists solely on monetary donations from local businesses, charitable organizations and area residents. With these donations, The Santa Claus Shop can purchase the gifts that allow participants to experience the joy of holiday giving without the financial burden. 

Our volunteers are from local organizations and residents of the service area.  The volunteers are responsible for the Shop set up, personal shopping services for each guest, gift wrapping and clean up.  Westy’s Storage, Chatham, will provide transportation and storage of items donated to the Santa Claus Shop, and CubeSmart, East Hanover, provided storage facilities for supplies during 2013.

This year’s Santa Claus Shop will be held at St. John’s Lutheran Church, 587 Springfield Avenue in Summit. Families will be offered shopping hours by invitation only on Wednesday, December 4th. The Santa Claus Shop will also be hosting a holiday luncheon for senior citizens Tuesday, December 3rd.

The Santa Claus Shop is chaired by Summit residents, Stacie Collins, Carrie Fallon, Beth Little, and Jenna Smith and co-chaired by Amanda Grainger, Kim Morander, Stacy O’Connor, Lisa Parkes, and Sarah Roberts.   

If you would like to help keep the holiday spirit alive for those in the community, the Santa Claus Shop chairwomen ask for checks to be made payable to SHIP, with Santa Claus Shop noted on the check’s memo line, and mailed to the Santa Claus Shop, P.O. Box 119, Summit, NJ 07901. The ability to make an online donation is also available via PayPal to santaclausdonations@gmail.com.