Christmas Morning Helps Cumberland County Families Find Holiday Magic

I believe in Santa.

I realize this is a slightly ridiculous thing for a 43-year-old skeptic to announce publicly, but I have believed in Santa for a very long time, including during the years when Christmas probably should have convinced me otherwise.

I grew up in poverty. There were times without enough food or heat, stretches in motels or other people's homes, and Christmases when the adults in my life were not in a position to manufacture the kind of effortless holiday magic children are supposed to believe simply appears.

And yet, somehow, there was usually something under the tree.

Sometimes it was a secondhand coat I genuinely needed. Sometimes it was a toy or a book. My grandmother and aunts helped, but some of the best things came from people I never knew, through Toys for Tots, giving trees, Kiwanis and other organizations filled with strangers who had quietly decided that children they would never meet deserved Christmas too.

I didn't understand the machinery behind any of that when I was a kid.

I just knew Santa came.

Which is probably why an email from a Cumberland County nonprofit called Christmas Morning stopped me.

Because Abby and Skyler Hunt have essentially built an entire organization around something I have believed for years:

Santa is magic. But Santa has always had help.

Meet Christmas Morning

Abby and Skyler Hunt founded Christmas Morning in 2022 with a fairly simple goal: help local families during the holidays and beyond.

The volunteer-led nonprofit provides children's gifts, groceries, household essentials and other support to families facing financial hardship. Its work is supported by local donors, businesses and volunteers, and while the biggest push comes during the Christmas season, the organization also aims to help families throughout the year when needs arise.

And while the name is Christmas Morning, the Hunts' work is not limited to putting toys under trees.

Because anyone who has ever lived through financial hardship knows that the thing threatening Christmas magic is not always the absence of a toy.

Sometimes it's groceries. Sometimes it's clothing or the household item that broke at precisely the moment there was absolutely no money available for one more thing to break. Sometimes a parent has managed to keep all the essential plates spinning, but there simply isn't anything left for Christmas.

Christmas Morning is designed to meet families somewhere inside that reality.

If Your Family Needs Help, You Can Ask

This is the part I especially want local families to know.

Anyone can submit a nomination for a family experiencing hardship through Christmas Morning's online form. The organization also works with local schools, Children and Youth Services, churches and community organizations to identify families who may need support.

There is an important geographic distinction. Christmas Morning describes its general service area as primarily Cumberland County and the West Shore, but its current holiday nomination form has a more specific requirement: the nominated family or individual must live in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, and be experiencing hardship. The form requires the person submitting it to confirm Cumberland County residency.

That means a family living elsewhere on the West Shore should not assume that being within the organization's broader service area makes them eligible for this particular holiday nomination program.

Nominations for the 2026 holiday season opened September 1.

Christmas Morning does not typically set a firm closing date. Instead, the organization continues accepting requests as long as available funding and donors allow. If resources for the season become fully committed, Christmas Morning says it will update its website accordingly.

Submitting a nomination does not guarantee assistance, which depends on available donations and funding.

The nomination form asks for the family's name, city, contact information and an explanation of the hardship they are experiencing. It also asks whether the person making the nomination wants to remain anonymous.

Nominate a family through Christmas Morning

And I want to say this clearly because asking for help can carry an absurd amount of shame that does not belong there:

Needing help with Christmas does not mean you have failed your children.

I was one of those children.

I did not grow up remembering the financial contribution of the stranger who bought something from a list. I remember the globe. The book. The coat. The strange and wonderful fact that Christmas kept finding me.

The adults were dealing with money.

The child was experiencing magic.

Both things can be true.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Christmas Morning

There Are a Lot of Ways to Be an Elf

The other thing I like about Christmas Morning is that helping does not require adopting an entire family or writing a giant check.

You can certainly do either of those things. But the organization has built several ways for neighbors to participate at very different levels.

Christmas Morning maintains an Amazon Wishlist filled with requested items. During its September holiday appeal, the organization was already shopping for babies, toddlers and teenagers, with requests ranging from toys and books to clothing and other gifts.

You can choose something from the list and have it shipped directly to Christmas Morning.

Shop the Christmas Morning Amazon Wishlist

Gift cards are another particularly useful option. Christmas Morning specifically welcomes cards for Walmart, Target, Amazon and grocery stores, which give parents and caregivers flexibility to buy food, household necessities and other things their family actually needs.

They also welcome gift cards that allow a parent or caregiver to have something for themselves: a meal, coffee, self-care or another small treat.

I love that detail.

We are very good at remembering the children at Christmas. Sometimes the person who has been holding the entire holiday together with approximately six dollars, creative accounting and sheer parental force could use a little kindness too.

Financial donations give Christmas Morning the flexibility to fill gaps on family wishlists and respond to needs that don't fit neatly into a toy drive.

Donors interested in making a larger commitment can also adopt a family and fulfill all or part of that family's wishlist. Local businesses and organizations can contribute financially, donate gifts or gift cards, or provide other in-kind support.

Donate or learn more through Christmas Morning

Then the Elves Actually Show Up

There is a wonderfully literal part of this operation.

Once donations and gifts are gathered, Christmas Morning holds a volunteer wrap party to sort, organize and wrap everything by family.

Then volunteer “elves” deliver the gifts to families, schools, churches and community partners ahead of Christmas.

I can appreciate the logistics involved in that operation. Getting donations is one thing. Matching gifts to actual families, making sure the right things end up together and coordinating deliveries before Christmas is another job entirely.

It also reminds me of a tradition Jason and I started years ago.

We began buying toys for Toys for Tots, and later started letting our children choose a gift for a child their own age. We would take the gifts to a collection box and explain that we were helping Santa.

Our kids didn't need a lengthy explanation of charitable giving. They understood that another child needed a present, and that they could help make sure one arrived.

Christmas Morning is a glimpse behind that curtain.

There are wishlists, Amazon boxes, gift cards, wrapping paper and volunteers loading cars. There are people buying one toy and others adopting entire families. Much of that work happens quietly, without the donors ever meeting the children they help.

And somewhere on the other side of it is a kid who wakes up and experiences something that feels like magic.

A $25 Gift Is Still a Gift

Christmas Morning's flyer offers examples of what different donations can help provide: $25 toward gifts for a child, $50 toward groceries for a holiday meal and $100 toward gifts and essentials for a local family.

Those are examples of impact, not guarantees about exactly what any particular donation will purchase.

You do not have to solve Christmas for an entire family.

Buy the book. Send the Target gift card. Choose something from the Amazon list. Share the nomination form with a school counselor who might know exactly which family needs it.

Sometimes community support becomes intimidating because we imagine that meaningful help must also be enormous.

It doesn't.

A village is mostly built out of people doing the piece they can do.

And Please, Let Kids Wish Big

There is one more thing I want to add, particularly as wishlists, giving trees and adopt-a-family programs start appearing around Central Pennsylvania.

Sometimes a child's wish is expensive.

That does not make the child greedy.

Years ago, my little brother Ryan was an Angel Tree recipient. He didn't know that at the time. He was about seven or eight and there was one thing he desperately wanted for Christmas: a Fisher-Price 3-in-1 Tournament Table.

It was a big ask.

He got it.

He remembers that gift decades later.

Poor kids are allowed to wish just as big as everyone else.

If a wishlist contains something outside your budget, choose another item. Choose another family. Give $10. Buy pajamas. Send groceries.

But don't make a child's audacity to want something wonderful into a character flaw.

Childhood does not become less imaginative because the adults are struggling financially.

And programs like Christmas Morning give neighbors a practical way to help children enjoy some of the ordinary excitement of Christmas, even when their families are facing extraordinary financial pressure.

The Magic Has Always Been People

Christmas Morning is accepting nominations and donations for the 2026 holiday season, with assistance dependent on available resources.

The organization primarily serves Cumberland County and the West Shore, although its current holiday nomination form specifically requires nominees to live in Cumberland County.

If your family needs help and meets that requirement, submit a nomination. If you know somebody who needs help, consider nominating them.

And if you can give, there are ways to do it with $25, a gift card, an Amazon order, a business donation, an adopted family or volunteer time.

I spent much of my childhood believing Santa somehow kept finding me.

As an adult, I know more about how it worked.

It was my grandmother.

It was my aunts.

It was Toys for Tots and giving trees and Kiwanis.

It was people whose names I never learned.

And now, right here in Cumberland County, sometimes it is Christmas Morning.

I still believe in Santa.

I just know who some of the elves are now.

Christmas Morning Founded by Abby and Skyler Hunt in 2022 Primarily serving Cumberland County and the West Shore

Request assistance or nominate a family: ** https://christmasmorning.gifts/nominate-a-family/

Donate or learn more: ** https://christmasmorning.gifts/

Shop the Amazon Wishlist: ** https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1PR106XSE4GHF