Holiday Shoppe!
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! December means we get to host our favorite annual event. This was year 7 for the Pause Holiday Shoppe and over 400 people came together to share in the excitement of the holiday season. We played, we ate and we shopped ‘till we dropped!
The Holiday Shoppe is planned by our event team and includes over 30 activities to choose from so families can design their own experience. Every activity, game, craft and experience is designed to build self-worth, engage the senses and remind children and adults alike that they matter.
This year’s theme, Charlie Brown Christmas, was embedded with activities designed to provide…
Up-regulating activities. Kids threw indoor snowballs in the winter wonderland room, searched through a sea of Snoopy beach balls to find items on their scavenger hunt list and played together in the Backyard - our multi-sensory gross motor room.
Creative activities. They created ornaments, made reindeer food, decorated Christmas tree ice cream cone treats and painted their own Charlie Brown tree canvas. Spoiler alert: our Pause kids are amazing artists!
Sensory activities. Kids used their sense of smell to guess popular Christmas scents, explored a candy cane scented rice sensory bin and had the option to check out the under the sea themed Reflections room for a quiet break!
Resilience building activities. Letters were written to Santa and kids shared they were kind, brave and strong. Our volunteers loaded them up with stickers shouting their worth. They were covered in them by the end of the event and went home reminded they are intuitive, smart, fearless or not afraid to try new things.
This event allows all kids, of every age to participate. Littles can stretch their legs in the nursery and teens have their own space called the Loft to hangout with friends, play pool, shoot some hoops and more!
Thanks to your generosity, our sweet babes all received “Santa Bucks” to shop for their family. Personal shoppers helped each kiddo pick out special gifts and our volunteer elves in the workshop wrapped and packaged gifts to go home. You know, for Christmas morning - or in some cases as soon as they got in the car!
We could not have done this without YOUR help! This event was made possible by…
Our amazing volunteers! Special thanks to the Fairfield Leadership Club and the Asian American Association!
Pat McCoon, Sr. for bringing Santa to life and Elizabeth Munoz for capturing our pictures!
Shane Pergrem for videoing our event!
Our CAN DO gift donors who made our Holiday Shoppe feel like a real shopping experience and gave kids a variety of gifts to choose from.
Chick-Fil-A and Raymond’s Pizza for supplying our volunteers and families with food throughout the event!
Center Pointe for providing their beautifully decorated church to host our event!
Our grant funders at Strong Families, Safe Communities (Ohio Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services) & Ohio Children's Trust Fund.
One Pause mom said, “We had so much fun! 💕 I cannot say enough wonderful things to capture how kind your volunteers were, how smoothly you managed SO many things, and how special you made my girls feel. My youngest saw this sign and said, ‘These people love our family.’ ❤️ Thank you so much!”
Creating magic for families during the holidays - that’s what this is all about.
This is CAN DO. This is COMMUNITY. This is YOUR SUPPORT.
