EVERETT — Since 1981, Christmas House has helped lower-income families throughout Snohomish County provide gifts for their children. Qualifying families for Christmas House have to be at or below the 150% federal poverty line.
For ages from infancy to 18, Christmas House and its elves are able to make Christmas for children of all ages a little more special. According to Gregg Milne, President of Christmas House, it takes close to 50,000 gifts to supply what they need for families, and the organization is already starting to buy for 2025. In 2023, over 8,200 children were given Christmas gifts.
Going into their 44th year, Christmas House is seeing more families than ever seeking help, due to the cost of living ever increasing. But due to inflation, prices for toys have gone up, causing donations and funds for the organization to go down.
“Our incoming donations are down because a lot of people don’t have the money to buy extra to give to others,” Milne said.
Online registration for volunteering is open and members of the community are encouraged to volunteer this season if they are able. For those who wish to donate, while Christmas House appreciates both money and toy donations, money donations are highly encouraged.
“We can usually buy better than or cheaper than what they can buy for the same toy,” Milne said. “So we stretch that dollar a lot further if we’re buying it.” Where someone can buy one toy to donate for one child, Christmas house can buy more toys for more children with the same amount of money.
“We got all these kids out there, that without help from organizations like ours just wouldn’t have anything for Christmas, and we can’t have that,” Milne said.
Christmas House will be open for shopping from Dec. 5 to 21, and will be located at the Everett Boys and Girls Club, 2316 12th St.
For more information about donating to Christmas House, or to see the exact rules to shop and who can shop, and find out how to volunteer, see www.christmas-house.org
