Tampa, Fla. — For children, the magic of the Christmas season starts under the tree.

What You Need To Know

  •  Metropolitan Ministries is giving to hose in-need this Christmas

  •  Hundreds of kids were invited to pick gifts for their parents

  •  Met Ministries organized dozens of events for those in-need between Thanksgiving and Christmas

  • 20,000 volunteers helped work to in various roles to feed those in-need

New toys, gifts and clothes from Santa adds to the wonder of Christmas morning. But this year, Metropolitan Ministries wants to make sure kids understand the joy of giving, not just receiving.

Last week, hundreds of kids were invited to Met Ministries to meet Santa and pick out gifts for their parents.

We followed 7-year-old Grace as she carefully looked over tables full of gifts for adults, before finally selecting a bath robe for her Dad, and a bath soap and lotion kit for her Mom.

“She likes taking hot baths and she only stays in the shower for a little while,” Grace said as she walked off with the gift toward the wrapping station, where volunteers were waiting to help kids put the finishing touches on their gifts.

Once wrapped, the gifts were tagged with names for distribution on Christmas.

The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are the busiest for Met Ministries, which this year used 20,000 volunteer to distribute thousands of meals and gifts across the Tampa Region.

It is not only hosting meals for it’s temporary residents, but also for it”s Holiday Tent on Rome Avenue, and several pop-up sites across the Tampa area.

For more information on Metropolitan Ministries or how you can help those in need, visit here.