Angel trees in Metro Vancouver: How community organizations give back during the holidays

The holiday season is a popular time for giving. This year, the Salvation Army’s angel tree program has overtaken social media.

Angel trees display tags with gift requests for children and families in need, so donors can select “angels” to shop for. Across social media, angel tree videos have gained millions of views. 

Salvation Army National Community Relations and Development Secretary Dale Bannon told USA TODAY TikTok posts using #angeltree have increased by more than 875 per cent this holiday season, compared to 2024.

Angel trees also exist in Surrey, but the Surrey Women’s Centre angel tree program isn’t the same as Salvation Army’s. While the centre used to have angel tree tags, it moved to a different system in 2023.

The centre began doing a public callout for general survival essentials, hygiene products, winter essentials like clothing, and gift cards instead of donors shopping for specific people, says Gabriela De Romeri, the Surrey Women’s Centre’s fundraising and communications lead.

“That changed it from donors shopping for survivors, to actually giving survivors the opportunity to go and shop for themselves because a lot of them would otherwise not have the resources, funds, or time to go do that, especially during the holidays.”

Every year, the Surrey Women’s Centre aims to serve 100 families through the program. This year, the centre raised an extra $2,000 so some families on the waitlist will also receive care packages and toys.

The crisis centre provides resources and safety for survivors and children escaping violence. These include counselling services, legal support, and a 24/7 mobile crisis response for survivors of a physical or sexual assault who need emergency medical treatment — known as the Surrey Mobile Assault Response Team or S.M.A.R.T. van outreach.

“We know a lot of the children that we see throughout the year have never received a gift on Christmas morning, so it allows that opportunity to kind of give back to the family and give them the most autonomy possible — to not only pick what they want, where they want, but also shop for it themselves,” De Romeri says.

Many organizations and community groups donate to the Surrey Women’s Centre’s angel tree program — including L.A. Matheson Secondary.

Gurpreet Kaur Bains’ Punjabi language classes started holding a donation drive for the Surrey Women’s Centre three years ago. She has partnered with other shelters since 2010.

Bains says the donation drives aim to raise awareness about gender-based violence and support women and children in transition homes.

The idea to partner with Surrey Women’s Centre came about when her students were working on film projects.

“I kept noticing students would keep coming up with domestic violence as one of their topics to talk about and to make movies on,” Bains says. “I personally know how many of our kids or families are dealing with domestic violence. This really woke us up to what we need to do to help, but also create awareness and education around this topic.”

De Romeri holds educational workshops about gender-based violence and the work the centre does in Bains’ classes.

“Gabriela shares her own story so people understand that this doesn’t happen in vacuum — it could happen to anybody,” Bains says.

This year, the drive collected about $9,000 worth of items for the centre, including essentials like soap, toys for children, and gifts for women like purses.

Another organization that donates to the Surrey Women’s Centre is the Lower Mainland Christmas Bureau. Since 1930, it has provided gifts and food to low-income families during Christmastime.

The bureau serves about 20 other Christmas bureaus in the region and about 21,000 children annually. In Vancouver, it serves just under a 1,000 families, including about 1,900 children. Food donations have also grown to be grocery story gift cards for families — $25 for each family member.

The bureau also collects toys year-round through personal and business donations and is able to store items in its warehouse, unlike smaller bureaus.

“We know toys aren’t necessary for life … but there’s a lot of emotional wellness that goes along with it because kids are at school and their friends come to school and say, ‘Oh, I got this from Santa, I got this for Christmas,’” says Nicole-Ann Poitras, director of marketing and engagement at the bureau.

“We do what we can to be able to provide for families, so kids don’t feel left out amongst their friends.”

For each child under 18, parents choose a primary gift and stocking stuffers, books, clothing, and stuffed animals. They can also select household items like dishes.

The bureau operates a toy store that parents walk through to choose what they want for their kids, Poitras says.

“They have that experience where it’s like a store and they’re doing the shopping themselves — and it brings them that dignity, where we’re not saying, ‘This is what you get.’ They get to choose what they get.”