Angel trees have made a return for the holiday season, and they have become a trend for influencers across social media. Angel trees are a Christmas charity program run primarily by the Salvation Army where people can pick up tags with Christmas lists from a decorated tree. People can buy gifts for these families to help make sure they receive presents for the holidays.
The Salvation Army isn’t the only organization trying to help. The U.S. Marine Corps Reserve does a Toys for Tots each year for kids, where they collect and distribute new toys to kids. Several local churches do Operation Christmas Child, which is run by Samaritan’s Purse, where people can fill shoeboxes with toys, school supplies, and hygiene items for kids around the world.
Angel trees have recently been gaining popularity among several social media influencers like Becca Bloom. Bloom and her husband posted several videos of them shopping for angel tree gifts, gifting kids things like a computer, Nintendo Switch 2s, clothes and a bunch of other fun toys. She bought gifts for dozens of kids in need.
Bloom’s angel tree content has gotten hundreds of thousands of views, with many people praising Bloom for her generosity and her willingness to help families who are in need. Several people in the comments talked about how sweet her gesture was and how they were shocked by how much time and money she was putting into these angel tree gifts.
Sophomore Valerie Yates said, “I heard about angel trees a while ago on social media. I think angel trees are a good way to give people in need the things they need so they can experience a Christmas, even if it’s not toys, but just getting that kind of stuff is nice. I think it’s positive that people are posting about it. I think they’re getting money from the videos, yes, but then that money can be used to go towards buying more things for it and also raising awareness. That’s where most people, including me, heard about it so it’s a good way of raising awareness of donating.”
However, not all of the comments were praise for Bloom. Several people wondered whether her actions were genuine or if it was a way to gain more views. Others say that filming a good deed takes away the point of doing the good deed and can come across as preformative with the expensive gift buying. Despite all this, many people agree that influencers posting angel tree content is bringing awareness to the foundation and helping to support the community.
Angel trees are nothing new, but social media has given them a new space to grow. Influencers such as Bloom have the ability to reach thousands and millions of people quickly. This can hopefully lead to more donations and more awareness of charity programs like the angel trees. Organizations like Salvation Army benefit greatly from the publicity of it and it can help ensure families can receive gifts during the holidays.
There are also many ways that the information and awareness about angel trees can be spread through our community other than social media. Our local and chain stores can offer to carry angel trees as well.
Yates said, “I think if they started putting trees in multiple stores in every state
and like the big stores, Target, Walmart, Food Lion, that kind of thing, the amount of people who know about it might increase. I know I’ve never actually seen one myself, I’ve only seen them online. So I think if they started putting them in companies and more places around then it would be better. I think the school should encourage parents to donate to things like this because, if they have the money, I think they should help.”
If you would like to sponsor a family for Christmas, some notable places where you can find angel trees are in the Crabtree Mall, in several Walmart stores across the area, and in several small businesses.
