December 23, 2022 • 7 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Jonathan Mattox is co-chairman of The Christmas Store, founded in 1975. Jonathan tells us about this annual event that gives toys to families in need during Christmas.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American stories,
and it's Christmas season, so we're telling Christmas stories. In
nineteen seventy five, the Christmas Store was founded and has
been giving out presents to those in need ever since.
Jonathan Maddox of the Oxford Old miss Rotary Club is
co chairman of the Christmas Store and he's here to
(00:31):
share this beautiful annual event that happens right here in
our small, beautiful town of Oxford, Mississippi, about an hour
south of Memphis. Here's Jonathan. The Christmas Store is a
community based volunteer organization that gives toys children in our
community who otherwise might not have anything for Christmas. In
(00:54):
two thousand and seven, when the Rotary Club of Oxford
Oldness was forming and looking for a sing for project,
the Christmas Store seemed like a good place for us
to plug in and volunteer. I joined the Rotary Club
because I wanted to be able to make a difference,
and so when this project was brought to the Club's attention,
everyone really thought this was a great chance for us
(01:17):
to really give back to those in our community. A
little do we know at the time that we would
be taking over the Christmas Store and for the past
fourteen years we have been the stewards of this annual event.
For years before our involvement in the Christmas Store, people
would shop throughout the year and just a massive, big
pile of toys, and it truly was a store and
(01:39):
families were invited to come in and select a couple
of toys for each of their children. When we became
involved in the store, it became a period that there
was always that certain toy that they could never have
enough of. It would be the one that they would
set out and everyone would want to grab that one
first and anyone who came later maybe didn't have the
opportunity to get that thing for that year. So we said,
(02:01):
why not just buy the toys that the people want
in the first place, And that led to a whole
new way of handling the Christmas Store. We put out
an application around the beginning of October where we actually
provide a wish list and ask families to choose a
couple of gifts from that list, and we go out
(02:21):
and actually purchase the things that that are on their list,
so they know they really are getting the things that
their children want. So when we started to kind of
think through how we would go about purchasing specific gifts
for specific children. In some years, when we have as
many as eight hundred children on the list, it was
a pretty dawning task. So although the Rotary Club is
(02:43):
the stewards of the event, it really is the community
who makes it happen. We have in most years seventy
five to one hundred volunteers who participate throughout the entire
planning season, shopping, helping families navigate through our event, rap presents,
hand out folks in other ways to make that day special.
It's quite a huge undertaking and a huge volume of
(03:06):
toys to manage. Preparations begin in September, and so it
is amazing how many people are a part of making
this happen. I see parents who bring their children out
shopping and navigating through the aisle and trying to find
a certain thing, and children really getting involved and trying
to pick out what they think would be the best
(03:28):
choice between the dolls or the puzzles or whatever, and
really actively engaging and wanting to make sure that somebody
else gets a great gift. Is fun to be able
to experience. I have a thirteen year old son, and
we've been doing this for fourteen years, so he's never
known Christmas where his dad wasn't doing the Christmas Store
in those months leading up to that. And it really
(03:50):
is an opportunity to families work together, for parents to
bring their children along and really show them the importance
of helping others and the importance of giving that the
Christmas season isn't always about what you want to put
on your Christmas vishalist, but how you can help other people.
The energy on our distribution day is so high. We
(04:10):
typically have music playing in the background and there's lots
of laughing and carrying on. Volunteers are all lined up
and often wearing elf hats and other costumes and things
like that sort of make the day a lot of fun.
And the families that come through really bring a lot
of energy with them. There's such appreciation and such gratitude.
(04:31):
It really does just amp up the feeling that everyone has.
There is something about the Christmas season that brings out
that true want to help other people, and it's amazing
how many people are willing to give their time. There
are people who reach out to us early in the
fall and say when is it time to sign up
(04:51):
for the Christmas Store because I want to be involved
with that project again this year. Those people come back
to us every year and we see that list of
our faithful participants grow and grow. Because this event has
been around for so long, I think it really does
have a special place in the community. I meet people
all the time who say, when I was younger, you know,
(05:12):
my grandmother wasn't part of the Christmas Store, and it
was one of her favorite things to do every year,
and I am so excited that now I'm able to
be a part of it. We've even had people who
have been the participants in the Christmas Store before ask
how they can become a volunteer in the next year
because they want to pay it forward and help other
(05:33):
families the same way. One year, kind of midway through
the store, a gentleman walks through the door and he
says to the people who are at the front counter,
who's in charge here? So I saw what was going on.
I scurried over the table and you and I said,
that's me. How can I help you? I said, well,
I need to talk to you when this is over.
(05:53):
So I hooked him up with the volunteers who helped
him find the toys that have been selected for his
family and the other things that were available and waited
for him at the end. And when we got to
the end, he pulled me out into the hallway, and
I was really expecting that he was about to just
give me some kind of complaint about the process or
about how he had been treated, and instead he teared
(06:14):
up and said that he didn't know what he was
going to do, and how important this was for him,
and how meaningful it was going to be to us children.
For so many people who come through the line and
gather the toys, in some ways you can be a
very humbling experience, but for most of them there is
such gratitude and such well wishing. For us, it's such
(06:37):
a mutual experience of gratitude and appreciation and really love
just being a part of a community together. I think
a lot of people are looking for a way that
they can do something meaningful and they want to help
someone else, but they don't always know how to do it,
and so being able to coordinate this program every year
and give that opportunity is for me one of the
(06:58):
most rewarding parts about because there's no better way to
start your Christmas season than helping someone else. And a
great job on the storytelling in production by Madison and
a special thanks to Jonathan Maddox of the Oxford Ole
Miss Rotary Club. This is just another example of the
generosity of the people of this great country and that's
(07:19):
what we do here on the show. America is the
star of the show in this Christmas season, celebrating the
generosity of the American people here on our American Stories. Folks,
if you love the great American stories we tell and
love America like we do, we're asking you to become
a part of the Our American Stories family. If you
agree that America is a good and great country, please
(07:42):
make a donation. A monthly gift of seventeen dollars and
seventy six cents is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters.
Go to our American Stories dot com now and go
to the donate button and help us keep the great
American stories coming. That's our American Stories dot Com.
This is Lee Habib and this is our American stories,
and it's Christmas season, so we're telling Christmas stories. In
nineteen seventy five, the Christmas Store was founded and has
been giving out presents to those in need ever since.
Jonathan Maddox of the Oxford Old miss Rotary Club is
co chairman of the Christmas Store and he's here to
(00:31):
share this beautiful annual event that happens right here in
our small, beautiful town of Oxford, Mississippi, about an hour
south of Memphis. Here's Jonathan. The Christmas Store is a
community based volunteer organization that gives toys children in our
community who otherwise might not have anything for Christmas. In
(00:54):
two thousand and seven, when the Rotary Club of Oxford
Oldness was forming and looking for a sing for project,
the Christmas Store seemed like a good place for us
to plug in and volunteer. I joined the Rotary Club
because I wanted to be able to make a difference,
and so when this project was brought to the Club's attention,
everyone really thought this was a great chance for us
(01:17):
to really give back to those in our community. A
little do we know at the time that we would
be taking over the Christmas Store and for the past
fourteen years we have been the stewards of this annual event.
For years before our involvement in the Christmas Store, people
would shop throughout the year and just a massive, big
pile of toys, and it truly was a store and
(01:39):
families were invited to come in and select a couple
of toys for each of their children. When we became
involved in the store, it became a period that there
was always that certain toy that they could never have
enough of. It would be the one that they would
set out and everyone would want to grab that one
first and anyone who came later maybe didn't have the
opportunity to get that thing for that year. So we said,
(02:01):
why not just buy the toys that the people want
in the first place, And that led to a whole
new way of handling the Christmas Store. We put out
an application around the beginning of October where we actually
provide a wish list and ask families to choose a
couple of gifts from that list, and we go out
(02:21):
and actually purchase the things that that are on their list,
so they know they really are getting the things that
their children want. So when we started to kind of
think through how we would go about purchasing specific gifts
for specific children. In some years, when we have as
many as eight hundred children on the list, it was
a pretty dawning task. So although the Rotary Club is
(02:43):
the stewards of the event, it really is the community
who makes it happen. We have in most years seventy
five to one hundred volunteers who participate throughout the entire
planning season, shopping, helping families navigate through our event, rap presents,
hand out folks in other ways to make that day special.
It's quite a huge undertaking and a huge volume of
(03:06):
toys to manage. Preparations begin in September, and so it
is amazing how many people are a part of making
this happen. I see parents who bring their children out
shopping and navigating through the aisle and trying to find
a certain thing, and children really getting involved and trying
to pick out what they think would be the best
(03:28):
choice between the dolls or the puzzles or whatever, and
really actively engaging and wanting to make sure that somebody
else gets a great gift. Is fun to be able
to experience. I have a thirteen year old son, and
we've been doing this for fourteen years, so he's never
known Christmas where his dad wasn't doing the Christmas Store
in those months leading up to that. And it really
(03:50):
is an opportunity to families work together, for parents to
bring their children along and really show them the importance
of helping others and the importance of giving that the
Christmas season isn't always about what you want to put
on your Christmas vishalist, but how you can help other people.
The energy on our distribution day is so high. We
(04:10):
typically have music playing in the background and there's lots
of laughing and carrying on. Volunteers are all lined up
and often wearing elf hats and other costumes and things
like that sort of make the day a lot of fun.
And the families that come through really bring a lot
of energy with them. There's such appreciation and such gratitude.
(04:31):
It really does just amp up the feeling that everyone has.
There is something about the Christmas season that brings out
that true want to help other people, and it's amazing
how many people are willing to give their time. There
are people who reach out to us early in the
fall and say when is it time to sign up
(04:51):
for the Christmas Store because I want to be involved
with that project again this year. Those people come back
to us every year and we see that list of
our faithful participants grow and grow. Because this event has
been around for so long, I think it really does
have a special place in the community. I meet people
all the time who say, when I was younger, you know,
(05:12):
my grandmother wasn't part of the Christmas Store, and it
was one of her favorite things to do every year,
and I am so excited that now I'm able to
be a part of it. We've even had people who
have been the participants in the Christmas Store before ask
how they can become a volunteer in the next year
because they want to pay it forward and help other
(05:33):
families the same way. One year, kind of midway through
the store, a gentleman walks through the door and he
says to the people who are at the front counter,
who's in charge here? So I saw what was going on.
I scurried over the table and you and I said,
that's me. How can I help you? I said, well,
I need to talk to you when this is over.
(05:53):
So I hooked him up with the volunteers who helped
him find the toys that have been selected for his
family and the other things that were available and waited
for him at the end. And when we got to
the end, he pulled me out into the hallway, and
I was really expecting that he was about to just
give me some kind of complaint about the process or
about how he had been treated, and instead he teared
(06:14):
up and said that he didn't know what he was
going to do, and how important this was for him,
and how meaningful it was going to be to us children.
For so many people who come through the line and
gather the toys, in some ways you can be a
very humbling experience, but for most of them there is
such gratitude and such well wishing. For us, it's such
(06:37):
a mutual experience of gratitude and appreciation and really love
just being a part of a community together. I think
a lot of people are looking for a way that
they can do something meaningful and they want to help
someone else, but they don't always know how to do it,
and so being able to coordinate this program every year
and give that opportunity is for me one of the
(06:58):
most rewarding parts about because there's no better way to
start your Christmas season than helping someone else. And a
great job on the storytelling in production by Madison and
a special thanks to Jonathan Maddox of the Oxford Ole
Miss Rotary Club. This is just another example of the
generosity of the people of this great country and that's
(07:19):
what we do here on the show. America is the
star of the show in this Christmas season, celebrating the
generosity of the American people here on our American Stories. Folks,
if you love the great American stories we tell and
love America like we do, we're asking you to become
a part of the Our American Stories family. If you
agree that America is a good and great country, please
(07:42):
make a donation. A monthly gift of seventeen dollars and
seventy six cents is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters.
Go to our American Stories dot com now and go
to the donate button and help us keep the great
American stories coming. That's our American Stories dot Com.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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