The Christmas Palooza Experience
CHRISTMAS PALOOZA is just that… it’s a party. Sure, toys could be passed out to people in any manner one chooses, cause they’re free, right? But we believe this is an incredible opportunity to celebrate, impart value and communicate belief in people by creating a first-class experience for every person attending.
Yes, the centerpiece of CHRISTMAS PALOOZA is the free toy store where every registered child is able to receive two free toys, picked out for them by their parent, guardian or themselves, but the experience is way more than that. While waiting to enter the store, people can enjoy free, gourmet hot chocolate and other treats, have their picture taken at our photo booth and enjoy the sounds of the season. Plus, after picking out their toys, we have teams of volunteers ready to wrap any and every present so that if the toys need to be a surprise, they stay a surprise.
At the end of the day, this is about sharing love and value to every person served at this event, but helping parents and guardians be the heroes for their kids this holiday season. It’s about way more than toys, it’s an experience that we call Christmas Palooza.
The Christmas Palooza Story
We’ve not always made it a “Palooza”, but we’ve always made Christmas about giving. CHRISTMAS PALOOZA is powered by BELIEVING CHURCH, a vibrant, urban church located strategically in the city of Memphis. As an urban church, tangible needs have had a way of finding us, including in our earliest days as a church.
Several years ago, BELIEVING worked to provide toys for a family of seven kids who we were connected with through a coach at White Station High School. He knew of the church and that we “helped people”. We shared this need within our church and were overwhelmed by the generosity of people to bless this family. This abundant generosity led us to seek more families to help in the following year.
Specifically, we focused on five families led by single moms who needed some help in getting toys for their kids. At the time, our church met for services at the Malco Paradiso, and we literally filled the main hallway with toys for these kids.
At the beginning of that next year, we moved into our permanent home on Summer Avenue, right as COVID turned the world upside down. As we approached Christmas 2020, we had this desire to be a blessing to as many kids as possible at the end of the worst year any of us had ever seen. The church stepped up in a significant way and provided free toys to more than 400 kids that Christmas.
Believing that God could do even more, we increased our reach in 2021 and 2022, working to develop relationships with business, allies and other individuals who believed in this mission. Now, in the last two years, we’ve served close to 4,000 kids over 10,000 toys, and now we’re preparing for even more. You see in 2023, all our spots filled up in 20 minutes. That speaks to the greatness of the need. So rather than back down or celebrate, we’re gearing up to make a bigger difference.
We know there are thousands of families who need help providing toys for their kids this Christmas. We also know that because of our history of providing toys at Christmas, our consistency in providing free meals for kids every single weekday and our diligence in serving free groceries each month to hundreds of families for more than three years, we are uniquely positioned and connected to real need in our city.
This year, we’re working on creative partnerships to enable us to serve every child even better with multiple toys and special opportunities just for older kids through some outstanding local partnerships. These companies and individuals invest financially to see thousands of kids experience the best Christmas ever. It’s going to happen because a whole bunch of people decide to give, so a whole bunch of families in our city can receive.