Santa's Bag
NOTE: Santa's Bag has closed for the 2011 season. Thanks to all our ENCORE! volunteers -- and all our shoppers -- for making it another successful event! Check our website for next year's schedule next fall, and Happy Holidays to you and yours!
Santa's Bag: A Holiday Shopping Tradition
 Every December at Children’s Theatre of Charlotte, groups of volunteers dress up in bright red and green and put on pointed elf hats. The Theatre’s lobby becomes a winter wonderland, complete with Santa Claus. Children begin to line up outside the rehearsal rooms, chattering about the gifts they want to buy for a grandmother, brother or favorite teacher.
It’s time for Santa’s Bag, a unique shopping event that has become as much a part of the Theatre’s holiday traditions as the seasonal productions on its stages.
Santa’s Bag offers one-stop shopping for the entire family. Children under 12 can browse through a wide variety of inexpensive, pre-wrapped gifts and select something for everyone on their list. With volunteer “elves” guiding them, even the youngest children get the fun of picking out a special present all on their own. And a separate boutique area with fun gifts and crafts caters to older shoppers, including, for the first time this year, tweens and teens looking for presents to give their friends.
Santa’s Bag is run by ENCORE!, Children’s Theatre of Charlotte’s award-winning volunteer auxiliary. Committees have been meeting since the summer to plan and purchase presents, and the week of the event over 200 volunteers will be called upon to help. All funds raised go to support Theatre programming.
“When Children’s Theatre was established by the Junior League of Charlotte in 1948, it was an entirely volunteer-based organization,” said ENCORE! member Cristi Carras. “The work that ENCORE! does, including Santa’s Bag, is a real connection to that history.”
Volunteers have been organizing Santa’s Bag for 37 years, beginning a few years after Children’s Theatre of Charlotte moved into its previous home on Morehead Street. Originally, all the gifts were made by hand at workshop get-togethers - something that would be impossible now that almost 15,000 items are sold annually.
“You saved things around the house all year long to make into crafts,” said Cookie Parnell, a longtime ENCORE! member who has been volunteering at Santa’s Bag for over 30 years. “We made reindeer ornaments out of clothespins.” She still uses some cross-stitched tea towels that were made to sell in the adult boutique years ago.
Santa’s Bag is organized so that its focus remains on the joy of giving, rather than the glitz of buying. Prices are deliberately kept low, with most items costing between $1 and $3. And through the Sponsor-a-Child program, ENCORE! members raise money to give “scholarship coupons” to children who would not otherwise be able to afford to buy gifts. Last year, over 300 children came and shopped with these coupons.
All children have the opportunity to visit and have a photo taken with Santa before or after they shop Santa’s Bag. Roger Stewart has been a volunteer Santa since the late 1990’s. Working with the children, especially some of the underprivileged groups who visit, has been such a rewarding experience for him that he make volunteering at Santa’s Bag a priority every year.
“The first year I did it, what immediately got my attention is how simple their wants were,” he said. “In many cases, they ask for things like a basketball for their brother instead of something for themselves. Getting to meet Santa means so much to kids, and I get an amazing feeling of joy from the excitement I see in their faces. It is in the truest sense the beginning of my holiday season.”
Cookie Parnell echoed this strong connection to the tradition of Santa’s Bag. “It is the way I start my holiday season,” she said. “My children always loved coming to Santa’s Bag, and now that they are grown, I still love coming and volunteering.” |
