Christmas Angels at Work
Last Christmas, there weren’t going to be any gifts for the children of a refugee family recently arrived from Cuba. But with help from Catholic Charities Fort Worth Christmas Angels program, the three children, ages 3 to 8, unwrapped new toys on Christmas morning.
Steve Beck, refugee services supervisor, said the family’s father and grandfather were brought to tears when they picked up the gifts, saying they had no money for presents that year.
Volunteer Specialist Kelly Smith said Christmas Angels provided gifts last year for 848 children of clients participating in CCFW programs. The agency’s Northwest Campus in Wichita Falls gifted presents to 124 children. She explained that each November, case managers identify families with the greatest need, then submit a wish list for each child to Christmas Angels.
“This is a resource for [families] while they’re working on their path out of poverty,” Smith said. “They won’t have to worry about how they’ll pay for Christmas gifts when Catholic Charities is there to help.”
Smith said last year, and during the pandemic, donors bought Walmart gift cards and ordered gifts sent directly to CCFW from an Amazon gift registry. She said 391 children received a $50 Walmart gift card, 78 received gifts from their Amazon wish list, and 379 children received toys from the program’s Toy Shop where case managers can shop for children of clients in any CCFW program.
Volunteer Brenda Gilb, who has coordinated Christmas Angels since 2011, said this year’s program will use a hybrid of the gift registry and the pre-pandemic model in which donors purchased and hand delivered gifts to a drop-off location. Feedback from donors indicated they wanted their families to experience the joy of service by shopping for and delivering gifts in person. So, this year, donors can contact the program’s email, ( for the Northwest Campus) for a list of gifts to purchase.
“I get to witness during drop-off week the joy that people have in giving,” Gilb said. “It’s not something they have to do. It’s something they’ve chosen to do. There’s true joy in that.”
Gift drop-off will be Dec. 9 and 10 at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Fort Worth and Dec. 5 at the Northwest Campus.
Smith said donations come not only from Catholic groups and parishes, such as Most Blessed Sacrament Parish in Arlington, St. Philip the Apostle Parish in Flower Mound, and Good Shepherd Parish in Colleyville, but also from non-Catholic faith partners, corporate partners, and individual donors.
“This is a community effort,” she emphasized. “We couldn’t do it without all of those donors working together.”