The Province Empty Stocking Fund: Making Christmas for 365 days a year

Christmas is a busy year-round operation at the Lower Mainland Christmas Bureau.

Province readers are alerted to the frenzied activity behind the big warehouse doors at this time of the year because this is when we ‘Give a Christmas’, as our oft-used slogan goes.

Donors to this publication’s Empty Stocking Fund have made it possible for 850-plus Vancouver area families to have a Christmas to celebrate this year. That means wrapped gifts for around 1,950 youngsters to rip open excitedly on Christmas morning. Parents will also smile because the grocery gift cards we hand out ensure they can put the family’s favourite food on the table.

But there’s a still bigger story because we estimate we indirectly help 21,000 more by shipping gifts to organizations throughout the region. That’s possible because we receive toys all year and the warehouse walls will begin to bulge again not long after we celebrate the arrival of 2026. The size of the operation ensures we can help other bureaus by storing what they need to top-up any shortfall they experience locally.

I’m sure you can visualize an abundance of Teddy Bears and other toys designed to delight the very young, stacked high. We do have a healthy supply of such products but it’s also important that we provide for older youngsters. You may have heard the term STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — which applies to toys that educate and challenge. Next time you donate you might want to think about that valuable category, which includes science kits for example and books, of course.

This is a cause close to my heart: my association with the work of the Christmas Bureau stretches back to the 1980s when I wrote stories about its important work as a reporter with The Province.

At the time my mother, Shirley Morgan, worked in the paper’s promotions department and her duties included counting donations that arrived. Since leaving the newspaper a decade or so ago, it’s been my honour to serve on the bureau board, working closely with executive director Chris Bayliss and his staff. You can take the reporter out of the newsroom but you can’t take the newsroom out of the reporter. So, for the past few years I’ve been digging around for untold stories about the bureau.

Here’s a little-known fact: when movie production companies break down a studio set they donate not just the toys they may have used in filming but literally everything else — happily, we are able to pass on what we don’t use to other local charities serving families with different needs. You might say, we’re much more than toys.

Naturally, our operational costs are substantial so monetary donations are much needed. In the case of loyal Province readers I know that doesn’t fall on deaf ears. Please continue to support this valuable cause and have a great holiday season.

For more than 100 years The Province’s Empty Stocking Fund has helped make the holidays brighter for less-fortunate families throughout B.C. With the generosity of our readers and supporters, the fund sponsors 25 community groups that provide food hampers and gifts to kids, families and individuals.

Donations can be made online at theprovince.com/esf or by phone at 604-253-6911.