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Santa’s Toy Shop Is A Gift for Struggling Families During the Holidays

By Katie Vasquez and Paula Katinas

SUNSET PARK — Salisa Hudson was looking for the perfect Christmas gifts for her three children, but she wasn’t in a department store. Instead, she was standing in a church hall. 

Hudson was one of an estimated 600 people on Dec. 10 who visited the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, where Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens (CCBQ) set up a free “toy shop” filled with everything from dolls to trucks to books and puzzles that parents could pick out to give their children for Christmas.  

RELATED: Diocese of Brooklyn’s Christmas Tree a ‘Gift’ Spreading Hope, Joy in Grand Army Plaza

“Coming here today, I think I will absolutely be able to accomplish it,” Hudson said of the search for Christmas gifts for her three children, adding that she now feels she can give her family a wonderful Christmas. 

The goal of the event, said Debbie Hampson, senior director of community outreach services for CCBQ, is to help parents who might be struggling financially find toys to put under the tree without spending money that might be needed for other things.  

“We’ve really seen this past year, especially the last few months, a lot of our families have been struggling,” Hampson said. “People have been coming to us who normally don’t come to us for help.” 

Pre-registration, which parents were required to do to participate in the event, filled up “faster than a Taylor Swift concert,” according to Hampson. 

According to the Bank of America Institute, one in four families in the U.S. is living paycheck to paycheck — spending 95% of their income on necessities like groceries and rent with almost nothing left over for extras, like vacations or restaurant outings. 

CCBQ scheduled a total of four “toy shops” — two in Brooklyn and two in Queens — on Dec. 10, 11, 18, and 19, and the organization expected to help more than 3,000 children have a blessed Christmas because of the four events, Hampson said. 

Hudson was grateful for the opportunity.  

“I’m having a little bit of a difficult time making ends meet and getting to the next month. So, it means the world,” she said. 

CCBQ set up the basilica shop like a toy store, allowing parents to select their own gifts rather than having items handed to them.  

RELATED: St. Francis de Sales Students Help Decorate Christmas Tree at White House

“This way, we’re really empowering the family,” Hampson explained.  

Each parent was matched with a “shopper elf,” a volunteer who guided them from table to table to help them pick out gifts. 

Susan Galligan, who has volunteered at CCBQ toy shops for 10 years, said she loves it because it reminds her of what Christmas is supposed to be about — “that kids have Christmas.”

Bishop’s Annual Christmas Luncheon Raises $450,000 for Catholic Education, Youth Ministry Programs

By Jessica Easthope

“Strengthened my faith in God.”

“I’d be lost without it.”

“Home, it’s where I belong.”

Describing your experience with Catholic school and youth ministry in five words or less isn’t always easy.

“It was a great start on life. I don’t count a and on,” said Bishop Robert Brennan.

Because for so many it means everything.

“Many of these people support Catholic education and youth work in other ways,” Bishop Brennan said. “But there’s something about being here and being together and being here in this spirit of coming Feast of Christmas, that special.”

“The most heartbreaking thing for us is when hear about a family – they know that the Catholic school environment is what’s best for their child but they can’t figure it out because of the tuition,” said John Notaro the executive director of the Catholic Foundation for Brooklyn and Queens. “And that’s where we step in.”

Every year the Bishop’s Annual Christmas Luncheon raises money for Catholic education and youth ministry programs across the Diocese of Brooklyn through the Catholic Foundation for Brooklyn and Queens and Futures in Education.This school year 4,000 children received scholarships to get the same education Monsignor Fernando Ferrarese says is so crucial.

“The spiritual basis of education is what we offer in Catholic education,” said Msgr. Ferrarese. “And I think that that makes a big difference in the development of a child.”

Monsignor Ferrarese was honored, Wednesday, at the event held at Russo’s on the Bay in Howard Beach with the Saint John Paul the Second Distinguished Stewardship Award. His fellow honorees Dr. Elizabeth Lutas, who received the Spirit of Hope Award, and Jill Arkwright Harvey, who received the Emma A Daniels Benefactor’s Award, have their parents to thank for their Catholic education. Dr. Lutas has spent her career treating the homeless and Jill has had a lifelong dedication to Catholic causes.

“Home-schooled by mom and dad,” were Dr. Lutas’ five words to describe her Catholic education.”Children, unfortunately, don’t get it in the world. They may not even get it at home. So we have to take that to remind them how much God loves us,” she continued.

“I was raised as, part of my Catholic faith to spread it and, to do for others,” Jill said.

Every story of Catholic education’s impact is unique.

“Hard but I made it.”

“Lifelong and thrilling.”

But the most special are the ones that have yet to be written.The Bishops Annual Christmas Luncheon raised more than $450,000 this year.

Catholic News Headlines for Wednesday 12/10/2025

Priests and parishioners in the Diocese of Brooklyn gathered together for an annual Christmas luncheon hosted by Bishop Robert Brennan with the aim of raising funds for  Catholic education and youth ministries in Brooklyn and Queens.
Parents got the chance to create some Christmas magic for their children as Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens opened up Santa’s toy shop — ensuring that every kid gets a gift this holiday.
The Christmas spirit came to the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph as Christian music superstars Matt Maher and Sarah Kroger performed. The Brooklyn concert also supported Catholic education in the Diocese of Brooklyn.

Currents News Special: Bright Christmas

More than 60 years ago, a handful of Tablet Newspaper staffers asked a simple question in the Diocese of Brooklyn: “What if a few dollars from every reader could make Christmas real for a child who has nothing?”

They never dreamed their idea would take root. But every year since, the Tablet’s Bright Christmas Fund has helped children and families throughout Brooklyn and Queens have a merry Christmas.

In this special edition of Currents News, you’ll learn about the people the Bright Christmas Campaign helps, meet those who have made it possible over the years, and get a glimpse into Advent preparations in the Diocese of Brooklyn:

  • Receive a first-hand account from the business manager who helped mail those first Bright Christmas appeals – he still tears up when he talks about it.
  • Learn a lesson on giving from a woman who lost both of her parents as a child but still felt Christmas magic thanks to a community that cared. Now she contributes to the fund each year to pay it forward.
  • Join Bishop Robert Brennan at Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza as he blesses the diocese’s Christmas tree and nativity.

Diocese of Brooklyn’s Christmas Tree Spreads Joy and Hope At Grand Army Plaza

By Katie Vasquez and Paula Katinas

GRAND ARMY PLAZA — Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza looks even grander these days, thanks to the presence of a 25-foot-tall Christmas tree erected by the Diocese of Brooklyn. 

The tree, a Balsam fir, stands beneath the Soldiers and Sailors Arch and is adorned with 18,000 LED lights, including a glowing star at the top. At the foot of the tree is a nativity scene — a reminder that at the heart of the season is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. 

Bishop Robert Brennan blessed the tree and the creche with holy water on Dec. 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.  

“There’s a little bit of excitement, you might say, that’s building in the liturgical calendar. And we’re starting to get the sense that Christmas is near,” he told The Tablet, adding that the Christmas season “reminds us that Christ did indeed come, that God does live among us.” 

Bishop Brennan called the tree and the creche “a gift of the Diocese of Brooklyn, of DeSales Media, to the people of the city.”  

RELATED: New Light Comes to ‘Everday Life’; Tree Transforms Grand Army Plaza

“It’s our hope, and it’s our desire that this tree and this display of the nativity will give other people hope as they pass by here and see the reason for our joy,” Bishop Brennan said. 

Justina Chabli, a parishioner of St. Augustine-St. Francis Xavier Church in Park Slope, said she felt a great deal of hope. 

“Honestly, I just love celebrating my faith … it’s just really magical,” she said. “It’s just a wonderful reminder of what our goal here is — to spread the word of Jesus.” 

Even non-Catholics marveled at the beauty of the scene.  

Nika Harvey, a Baptist who was walking past Grand Army Plaza, stopped for a few moments to gaze at the tree.  

“It’s gorgeous! What a nice thing to see,” she said. “It makes me feel so good to see it.” 

Bright Christmas for All: Queens Parishioner Donates to Tablet Fund, Helps Others Feel Joy

By Jessica Easthope

Laura Arcuri knows exactly what a Bright Christmas gift can mean to a child facing unimaginable loss — she lived it.

In 1966, at age 13, Arcuri celebrated her first Christmas without her father, Nicholas—a World War II veteran who grew up during the Depression and died suddenly at 48 from an infection.

Her mother, battling cancer, somehow still managed a tree and gifts.

Two years later, by Christmas 1968, both parents were gone, and Arcuri and her brother became orphans, leaving their Long Island home for relatives in Bushwick.

Arcuri, a parishioner of St. Matthias Church in Ridgewood, Queens still remembers the magic of Christmas mornings that somehow remained bright despite the darkness.

Scan the QR code to donate to The Tablet’s Bright Christmas Fund.

A tree. Presents. Someone, somewhere, who cared enough to make sure she and her brother woke up to joy.

Now, every year, Arcuri gives to The Tablet’s Bright Christmas Fund so another child in the Diocese of Brooklyn can hold onto a good memory when life gets hard.

She knows firsthand: when everything else is taken away, the memory of one caring Christmas can be the light that never goes out.

“It just becomes a harder time to celebrate,” Arcuri said, “but somehow you remember those Christmases and you get some strength and comfort from knowing that you had a beautiful Christmas.”

Those fleeting hours of joy — presents under the tree, decorations, a sense of normalcy — are the very memories Arcuri now tries to give to others.

She hopes her gift reaches a child — or even an adult — facing the same lean, painful holidays she once knew.

“The Tablet always succeeds,” she aid. “There’s a lot of need… a lot of people that are hungry or children that are struggling, children whose childhood might even be cut short.”

She’s seen how a single bright Christmas can sustain someone for a lifetime.

“Christmas is a time to help others,” Arcuri told Currents News. “It could be a boy, it could be a girl… to make it a Christmas that some family is going to remember for a very long time.”

For her, those are the Christmas memories that last.

DONATE TODAY: Click here to contribute to The Tablet’s Bright Christmas Fund and make Christmas brighter for children in Brooklyn and Queens.