History of Wilson County Christmas for All

For several years, the Lebanon Fire Department gathered and distributed toys to children for Christmas. With the help of the Wilson County Department of Human Services (DHS), the toys were distributed to needy families in East Wilson County. Eventually, the needs of the community expanded to where the program had outgrown the space and capabilities of the Lebanon Fire Department and the DHS employees.

In approximately 1993, the Director of DHS, JoAnne Smith, set out to find a group of volunteers to take over the Christmas program. She partnered with the Bellsouth Pioneers (retired Bellsouth employees) who took over the project. The DHS employees and the Lebanon Fire Department continued to provide support for the program.

For a number of years, the Bellsouth Pioneers worked tirelessly to conduct the program. However, as Wilson County grew, the Bellsouth Pioneers did not have the membership or resources to continue the program. 

In approximately 2000, a group of local citizens saw that the program needed to continue and created what is now Wilson County Christmas for All. In 2005, Wilson County Christmas for All was incorporated under IRS 501 (c) 3 as a non-profit charitable organization. 

Currently Christmas for All (with the help of the DHS employees and the Lebanon Fire Department) provide toys at Christmas time to children who reside East of TN 109 (primarily Lebanon and Watertown). While Big Brothers of Mt Juliet, through Mothers Toy Store, provide toys for children who reside West of TN 109. Together they make sure the children of Wilson County have toys for Christmas.

Christmas for All (CfA) provides toys for approximately 2000 underprivileged children, from newborns to age 13. CfA receives support from the Lebanon Fire Department Toy Drives, the US Marine Corps Toys for Tots, and numerous other individuals and businesses. CfA also receives assistance from churches and organizations that wish to “sponsor” a child by buying toys for them. The CfA organization is run entirely by volunteers. 

CfA volunteers purchase and collect toys throughout the year. The last week of October, the Lebanon Fire Department and volunteers move the toys from the storage location to the warehouse location. Volunteers then organize the toys by categories so it is easier to shop for the children.

Applications for CfA are taken at the Department of Human Services starting at the end of October. Once an application is completed and turned in, the information is put into the database. That information is used to shop for the children and is also provided to sponsors that wish to buy toys for a child.

Some of the duties of volunteers are: enter information from the applications into the database, shop for children based on their wish list, call parents to come pick up their children’s toys, and help distribute the toys once they are ready. Volunteers are needed from the end of October until about a week before Christmas, when the last of the toys are picked up. Parents start picking up the toys the Monday after Thanksgiving.