Delivering Christmas Spirit with the OC Children’s Toy Box
Around this time every year, I ask myself what “Christmas spirit” really means—mostly when I am trying to figure why on earth I ever started doing the Elf on the Shelf. As my kids have gotten older, the holidays have started to mean something different. Traditions from when they were little aren’t as cool to them anymore, but I still want to make the holidays meaningful. This year, we started a tradition that is new for us, but by no means new to Orange: we volunteered with the Orange County Children’s Toy Box.
Bright and early on Monday, Dec. 12, a group of about 75 “elves” gathered at Walmart in Locust Grove to buy toys for Orange County children in need. This year, we shopped for 300 families, with more than 700 children in total—kids in our community who would otherwise go without gifts under the tree.
This was my first time shopping as an adult, but I still remember when the Key Club would take our members from the high school and about 100 kids to Walmart. We would shop for their families and then go back to the Hog Parlor at Waugh Harley Davidson to wrap the gifts and eat pizza.
And even though the shopping is different now, there is still a Waugh involved: Donna Waugh Robinson, or as WJMA legend JD Slade calls her, the “Queen of Christmas.” Donna has been leading the nonprofit since 1991, helping countless families in Orange. Recently, the next generation has been getting involved as well, with Donna’s daughter Elliot Robinson assisting with managing the organization’s events during her college’s Christmas break.
I was able to shop for five families over the course of about two and a half hours on Monday, but many of the other volunteers were there from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. Each family provides a list of suggested gifts, plus clothing and shoe sizes for their children. Then the community comes together, donating toys, clothes and money to make those wish lists possible. Shopping at Walmart is completed with the funds raised through those monetary donations, which totaled approximately $70,000 in 2022.
Once the shopping is done at Walmart, a box truck from Gibson Rental is loaded up and it returns to their warehouse. Later in the week, the warehouse transforms into something akin to Santa’s workshop.
On Wednesday, Dec. 14, my husband and I took our two kids, ages 11 and 15, over to Gibson’s to do another round of “shopping.” This time, we and the other volunteers sifted through tables of donated toys, clothes and books from MPS, filling bags with additional items for those families in need.
Our children were so excited to be able to help. My 11-year-old son especially liked being able to put his expert toy knowledge to use, informing us grownups as to what the kids these days actually like.
On Saturday morning, volunteers show up yet again, this time to play the role of Santa himself. They arrive at Gibson’s and are given bags of toys to deliver to families. It’s amazing to see the joy and relief on the faces of parents and grandparents who know that for one more year, Christmas will still be magical for those kids.
And I think that is what Christmas spirit really is. It is coming together as a community year after year and taking care of each other. It is taking some time to create a little magic for a stranger just because you care. We are so lucky to have such an established and amazing organization as the Orange County Children’s Toy Box here in our community, and to have so many people willing to donate toys, their time and money to make it possible.
To learn more about the Orange County Children’s Toy Box, visit www.occtoybox.org.