The Santa Claus Shop will open its doors to area families, providing its 50`th consecutive year of complimentary holiday shopping. The shop serves more than 500 low-income families and senior citizens from Summit, New Providence and Berkeley Heights who are referred by local social services agents.
The Santa Claus Shop guests personally select a household item, new clothing for each member of their immediate family, a hat and mittens, a book, and new toy for each child. Local volunteers are responsible for the shop setup, personal shopping services for each guest, gift wrapping and clean up.
This year’s Santa Claus Shop will be held at St. John’s Lutheran Church, 587 Springfield Avenue in Summit. The Santa Claus Shop will be hosting a holiday gathering for senior citizens Tuesday, November 29th. Families will be offered shopping hours by invitation only on Wednesday, November 30th.
The Santa Claus Shop is chaired by Summit residents, Jennifer Easton, Sarah Roberts, Melissa Sartorius and Amy Wise and co-chaired by Denise Holmes, Laura Lameo, Jenn Moore and Diana Moran. The Santa Claus Shop exists solely on the donations of local businesses, organizations and residents. With the monetary donations, the Santa Claus Shop can purchase the gifts that allow less fortunate neighbors to experience the joy of holiday giving without the financial burden.
To 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 at www.summitsantaclausshop.com If you would like to find out more information or get involved please visit our website or follow us on Face book at Santa Claus Shop – Summit, NJ.
(above) Santa Claus Shop helpers.
