“Be A Santa to a Senior” Giving Gifts to Seniors in the Brainerd Area

The program “Be a Santa To a Senior” kicked off at the end of November just in time for the Christmas season. Home Instead Senior Care in Brainerd will be hand delivering gifts to seniors this year from donations made by community. They have created ornament tags with each person’s name and what they might like for Christmas.

Shoppers can visit local stores to pick out an ornament tag, buy the requested gift, and return it to the store unwrapped.

“On the tags we have the name of the person, their first name, and then there’s some gift ideas, and those ideas don’t necessarily come from those people, because many of them don’t know that they’re getting gifts, but there from someone that knows them, who has given us their name. So there’s just general ideas of different things so you kind of know what that person might like, but any gifts are welcome, said Jen Grams, Home Instead Service Coordinator.

“We deliver the tags to the trees, and then we stop by periodically to see if there are any tags on the trees, and we either add or pick up the gifts at those locations,” added Grams.

“It’s also very heartwarming to show up at a senior’s door that wasn’t expecting you, and deliver a nice gift for them. Many of these people are lonely and may not get another Christmas gift, and so it’s really cool to brighten their day,” said Michael Cranny, Home Instead Business Development Manager.

Sometimes, even Santa comes along for the ride.

“We’ve got a good friend of ours, alias Ted, who has a great beard grown out, he comes every year and picks a different area that he delivers to, and the seniors really appreciate Santa, said Cranny.

December 19th is the last day to send in gifts. For anyone that would like to participate, you can find out more by visiting beasantatoasenior.com.