"Dear Santa, my name is Michaela. For Christmas, I would like a watch," Paula Fendall read from a letter.
It's a tradition Fendall started 11 years ago with her late husband, Earl, to make sure kids wake up on Christmas like she used to: with presents under the tree.
![](/content/dam/News/2018/12/24/122418_NYC_Paula_reads_letter_child.png)
(Paula Fendall reads a letter to Santa Claus from a child. She and her volunteers work to make sure such letters from kids in need do not go unanswered).
"Christmas is all about the children, and no child should not be able to open a gift on Christmas morning," Fendall said.
Fendall is the founder of Christmas Giving. Every year, she partners with a local foster agency or a school in a low-income neighborhood to collect letters written to "Santa."
Thanks to her network of 150 "givers" — friends, family, and even strangers from across the city — Fendall is able to grant those Christmas wishes. Since starting in 2008, she has answered thousands of letters.
"There are a lot of parents who are struggling and they want to, but they can't," Fendall said. "That's why I started Christmas Giving."
As the holiday nears, Fendall's Prospect-Lefferts Gardens home turns into the North Pole, with hundreds of gifts filling her living room. There is no sleigh or reindeer; volunteers pitch in to help her make the big delivery.
![](/content/dam/News/2018/12/24/122418_NYC_gifts_Paula_Fendall_living_room.png)
(Paula Fendall's living room filled with hundreds of gifts for children in need. Hundreds of kids at a Brownsville school will receive presents this Christmas).
"Most of them get everything on their list — and then some!" Fendall said.
This year, 290 kids at P.S. 401 in Brownsville will receive gifts. It's a school in a district where 1 in 5 of its students has experienced homelessness.
"It means a whole lot because a lot of times our children think 'No one really cares, why bother?'" said the school's principal, Deon Mitchell. "But this goes to show that someone does care and someone is thinking about you."
That's a feeling Fendall says lasts long beyond the holiday season, and what keeps her going to the next.
"It's a lot of work, I'm going to be honest, but to me it's all worth it," Fendall said. "To see that smile on that child's face, to see them running over to their classmate, showing them what they got, it's just wonderful."
![](/content/dam/News/2018/12/24/122418%2BNYC_kids_get_Christmas_presents_Paula_Fendall.png)
(Some of the children who have benefitted from Christmas Giving. Founder Paula Fendall says their joy is lasts long beyond the holiday season).
So for giving not just toys this Christmas, but also gifts of joy to children in need, Paula Fendall is our New Yorker of the Week.