The Annual Neighborhood Christmas Store is such an exciting time on the Parker Street Ministries campus! Thanks to the generosity of this amazing community, families from two low-income neighborhoods were blessed!
In case you didn’t know, Parker Street Ministries’ holiday festivities run a little differently. The hope is to love neighbors extravagantly and to affirm the dignity of parents who select and purchase new toys for their children at a steep discount. To those ends, a fully functioning neighborhood store is provided. The community donates brand new toys and funds to purchase toys. A similar concept works out through a separate Kids’ Corner where children and teenagers come shop for their parents and loved ones at even steeper discounts.
Parents, kids, family members, volunteers, and donors all participated in the gift of giving!
Here’s a look at numbers for the 2025 Christmas Store:
- More than $40,900 (retail value) in new toys were sold at 75% off their cost
- 21 businesses, churches, organizations, and many individuals donated toys, wrapping paper supplies, and monetary gifts
- 99 families purchased 2,171 gifts for 245 kids over the course of three days at Christmas Store (including 61 bikes and 185 gift cards)
- 20 grandparents purchased 359 gifts for their grandkids at a special shopping shift
- 155 children and teenagers purchased an additional 775 gifts for their family members at Kids’ Corner
- 458 volunteers filled 505 activity slots, totaling more than 1,361 volunteer hours throughout Christmas Store
- After Kids’ Corner, excess toys and gifts were donated to six local nonprofits to round out their holiday ministries, helping around 130 more kids
One mom shared, “I am beyond excited for the kids to see what they got. This year has been very rough for us.” With the support of her community, family, and Parker Street Ministries, she added, “We were able to get everything the kids asked for.” “And they were also able to shop for us by themselves [at Kids’ Corner].” One of her children was “most excited for us to see what he picked us out (he’s a gift giver like me).” It sounds like the gift of giving is doing exactly what it was meant to do.
Staff and Board rejoice knowing neighborhood families enjoyed the ability to provide for their loved ones and were pointed to The Father who gave Jesus, the embodiment of every good and perfect gift.
THANK YOU!
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Parker Street Ministries (PSM) is a 501c3 in Lakeland, Florida, that follows a Gospel-centered model characterized by living, listening, affirming dignity, and building community together in and through the Parker Street neighborhood. Parker Street Ministries is committed to Gospel-centered community development through the focus areas of: Fostering Spiritual Growth so Christ and His Gospel are front and center, Supporting Lifetime Learners through educational opportunities, Stabilizing the Neighborhood by addressing the quality and availability of housing, and Cultivating Connections so gaps in relationships and services are bridged.