Through its 2021 Holly Jolly Holiday project, Rainbow Days spread hope, cheer and holiday joy to hundreds of families experiencing homelessness in the Dallas community. Through a celebratory outdoor event hosted on the Lovers Lane United Methodist Church campus as well as deliveries to partnering service sites in the weeks afterward, over 750 infants, children, teens and parents received stockings, toys, gifts, winter coats and blankets from Rainbow Days this holiday season.

On Dec. 11, Rainbow Days hosted 240 children and parents from local homeless shelters, domestic violence centers and extended-stay motels for a day of holiday fun and family bonding. At the 2021 Holly Jolly Holiday event, children and parents enjoyed lunch, dessert, carnival games, arts and crafts, visits with Santa Claus, a petting zoo and holiday karaoke. Each child received a new coat and blanket as well as toys and gifts their parents personally selected for them. Finally, all members of the family — from infants to parents — received stockings filled with holiday treats, toiletries and other necessities.

In the weeks after the event, Rainbow Days also distributed additional stockings and gifts to 528 more children and parents living at partnering homeless-serving sites. As a whole, the 2021 Holly Jolly Holiday project benefited a total of 768 homeless children and parents who reside in local homeless and domestic violence shelters, transitional living sites and extended-stay motels.

Rainbow Days would like to recognize all of the wonderful individuals and groups who made Holly Jolly Holiday a success this holiday season:

• Lovers Lane United Methodist Church
• The Rees-Jones Foundation
• Lady ADA's of the Dallas County District Attorney's Office
• Insperity
• Varonis
• National Charity League
• Young Men's Service League
• Bank of America
• PepsiCo / Frito-Lay
• Toys for Tots
• Prince of Peace Catholic Community
• Amazon Wish List Donors
• Plus, hundreds of individuals who supported Holly Jolly Holiday through financial gifts, in-kind donations of toys and stockings, and volunteer hours!

ABOUT RAINBOW DAYS: Holly Jolly Holiday is a program of Rainbow Days, a 501(c)(3) Dallas-based nonprofit organization. Founded in 1982, Rainbow Days has a mission to help children and youth in adversity build coping skills and resilience to create positive futures. Through support groups, camps, life enrichment programs and critical needs services, Rainbow Days makes meaningful connections with at-risk and homeless children and youth and has positively impacted more than 241,000 kids in the Dallas area to date. For more information, please visit www.RainbowDays.org or call (214) 887-0726.