This time of year, there are usually at least a few stories in the news about 'Secret Santas', people who decide to make a positive difference in the lives of others. Often, these people will go into stores and pay off layaways, drop gold coins in red kettles, etc. I thought it would be nice to have a thread where we can see these stories, so we can read them and revel in the holiday spirit. Here's one about a Secret Santa who paid off all of the outstanding lunch bills of approximately 40 students. I've seen a few stories in the news over the past few years about children being denied lunch due to outstanding balances, or being served lower level lunches for the same reason, so this was particularly uplifting to read. Here's the link.
WOW!! That's a hefty bill! Here's one where Tim McGraw and Faith Hill paid off $5,000 in Layaways at Walmart, via his mother. She also handed out some cards with cash in them.
I think the $41,000 was for quite a few layaways although I don't know how many. I don't remember where I read it or I'd post the link. I didn't even know stores still did layaways.
My two great grandsons are just at that age were children become disillusioned with the story of Santa Clause. My granddaughter CJ found this article and has decided she would rather show them a different outcome as to where Santa comes from, and how he keeps going. http://thoughtcatalog.com/jacob-gee...-santa-claus-will-completely-melt-your-heart/
My husband's ex daughter-in-law (the mother of his two grandsons) got a very pleasant surprise last week when she went in to pay off an almost $600.00 layaway. When she got to the sales person at the register and gave her name and layaway receipt...she was told her bill had been paid in full by a "Secret Santa". With 4 boys now this was a wonderful surprise for her.
She remarried and had two more boys...her last baby boy was born a few days after my youngest grandson. So they both are 3 months old now. But her oldest boy is 16 now too. Two of my sisters each had 4 boys too and no girls.
That is just SO awesome that there are people in the world who can and will do things like that to help others, and to help children have a happy Christmas. When my kids were little, we seldom ever had much for them at Christmas time. My first husband was a construction worker, and he made good wages when he worked, but he was usually out of work in the winter, and sometimes it took forever to even get unemployment checks coming in, and those barely kept food on the table even when we had them. As @Babs Hunt mentiioned in one of her posts, socks and underwear or even a new pair of tennis shoes or snow boots were considered as Christmas presents, and sometimes one of those organizations that collects toys for kids at Christmas would also give us presents for the kids. If my husband worked up into the fall, then I was able to put some gifts on layaway for the kids, and have them paid for by the time he was laid off that winter; but it was always just a bad time of year for buying presents for us. When the kids were older, and I was working at the Christmas tree sales lot, the owner would close down the lot around the 22-23rd, and the kids and I sold the leftover trees for whatever we could get for them, saved one tree to take home and decorate for Christmas, and then they got their Christmas presents from the after-Christmas clearance sales. They had whatever money they earned from selling trees, so besides whatever we got them for Christmas, they also bought themselves new toys with their Christmas money. Those were good years for us.