Holiday Angels

Families Helping Families

Help Spread Joy This Holiday Season

Help spread joy this holiday season!

It’s that special time of year again when Holiday Angels launches to help families in need of support this holiday season! The Spence-Chapin Holiday Angels Program provides clothing, essentials, and gifts to families in need. These families have either previously been served through our counseling and support services, or are currently residing at or receiving services through our domestic violence and family homeless shelter partner offices. Holiday Angels is not your typical toy drive! It adds a personal component, as we match each donor family with a recipient family and provide donors with a wish list that your matched family has prioritized.

We would love to count on you to help make this holiday season extra special for families in need!

To get started, fill out our Registration Form, letting us know if you would like to participate and be matched with a family by Monday, November 18^th.

We would love to count on you to help make this holiday season extra special for families in need!

To get started, fill out our Registration Form, letting us know if you would like to participate and be matched with a family by Monday, November 18^th.

The final date to drop off or mail gifts to Spence-Chapin to be delivered to the families will be Wednesday, December 4^th.

Want to start a Holiday Angels Team? A group of colleagues, an entire business or school, a school classroom, or a group of friends, can all be a Holiday Angels Team! Sign your team up here!

If you’d like to participate but would prefer not to be matched with a family, you can still contribute any monetary gift to the program and help us help families in need.

To our families who are currently in process to adopt through one of Spence-Chapin’s adoption programs and would like to participate in Holiday Angels, please note that we are able to match you with a family for whom you will purchase gifts for the holiday, but are unable to accept financial contributions until adoptions are fully finalized. If you have any questions, please reach out to our Manager of Events, Toni Schweizer at [email protected]. Thank you!

Children Supported
in 2023

Gifts Wrapped &
Delivered in 2023

Families
Participated in 2023

Who Does Holiday Angels Benefit

The Holiday Angels program supports families who are in need of extra assistance during the holiday season. Some of the beneficiary families are former or current clients of Spence-Chapin who may be struggling financially and for whom providing winter essentials and especially holiday gifts for their children may be particularly challenging. We also partner with social service and health organizations throughout New York and New Jersey who operate in communities where Spence-Chapin also has a presence through our satellite offices, to support their clients during the holiday season. These may be families who are currently residing in shelters and are facing housing insecurity, intimate partner violence, and financial hardship. By offering these gifts, we aim to bring joy and relief to as many families as we can during the holiday season.

Who Can Be a Holiday Angel?

Holiday Angels is a great opportunity to spread joy as an individual, with your family, in your workplace or with your child’s school! Many of our Holiday Angels who are families enjoy the annual tradition of shopping all together for the items on their beneficiary families’ wishlist and having each family member help in selecting items they feel the beneficary family will appreciate. We also have colleagues who may be in the same department at their place of work, on the same team, or just work friends, who sign up to support one or more families as a group. Entire companies can also sign up and employees can choose to form a group or be matched with a beneficiary family individually. Schools are also welcome to participate, and each classroom can sign up to support one or more beneficiary families and be asked to bring in items based off of the families’ wishlists. However you choose to be a Holiday Angel, your participation will bring joy to those in need during the holiday season!

How does it work?

Holiday Angels fill out our form and select the size and number of families they want to support, and are then sent some information to help them pick out gifts for each child, including their age, size, and interests, like Spiderman or the color pink. There may also be additional items the family has identified as needing urgently, like winter garments, shoes, or crib sheets. Holiday Angels can then choose to go out and shop in stores and drop off the items to Spence-Chapin, shop online and have the items shipped to us, or make a donation for the amount they would like to contribute to the family, and Spence-Chapin can purchase the gifts to be delivered. Whichever path is chosen, Spence-Chapin volunteers will wrap all of the gifts, and staff will deliver them to each family!

Holiday Angels Wrapping Elves

Volunteers play a key role in wrapping and delivering gifts to families in need. Last year, with the help of our partner, Goldman Sachs, volunteers wrapped over 700 gifts, ensuring they were ready to be distributed to the community.

Want to learn more about volunteering during Holiday Angels? Email our Events team at [email protected]!

What Beneficiary Families Say About the Program

Thank you. It has been so hard and getting this help is awesome, you are the best, thank you so much.

Christmas would not be the same without you! We wish you all and your families A Happy New Year and may you all continue to be blessed, happy and healthy.

Thank you so much for the gifts you are a blessing to my family.

The kids absolutely loved the many gifts they received.

Thank you for doing this again this year, it really helps us, we really appreciate it, hope you have an amazing Christmas!

God Bless you all, this is always a hard time and getting these gifts is a blessing! Merry Christmas from our family to you!

Thank you very much for blessing me and my daughter this year. I am very grateful and blessed.

Who We Have Partnered With

We are proud to be able to partner with such wonderful organizations around New York and New Jersey for Holiday Angels and throughout the year to provide comprehensive support services to the women, children, and families who need them. Thank you!

Sign up today!

REGISTRATION FOR HOLIDAY ANGELS 2023 IS NOW CLOSED.

Thank you to all who signed up to bring joy to families this holiday season! If you weren’t able to register, there are still many ways to bring joy to the children, women, and families we serve through our services and programs. Learn more below and donate today!