An Australian mother found the perfect gift for her 14-year-old daughter at Kmart this year: a new bedroom.
Mother Sammie knew her daughter was going to be away from home on Christmas. So, she decided to take her drab bedroom and make it absolutely fabulous. Sammie found everything she needed at Kmart. She posted about it in the Kmart Mums Australia Facebook page and was met with absolute astonishment. People couldn’t believe the transformation she’d made.
“I decided last minute I was going to do my 14yr old daughter’s room up for Christmas as she’s away till Christmas morning,” Sammie wrote. “Her room had nothing in it bar a bed and a table. I walked into Kmart and came out with an entire room in less than an hour. I really hope she likes it.”
Sammie posted some before and after photos of her daughter’s room, and it’s true that the before pictures are a little drab.
But Sammie worked some amazing magic, and now her daughter has a bedroom to die for.
The post elicited thousands of likes and hundreds of comments. Many people even asked Sammie to come work her magic on their own rooms. Maybe it will turn into a new career for her — all because of a Christmas gift and a Facebook post.
“She will love it,” wrote a Facebook user. “What a beautiful gift from a mother to her daughter. Merry Christmas to you and your family.”
But Sammie didn’t stop there.
She was back to share a video of her daughter seeing her room for the first time. She was in tears when she saw her beautiful bedroom and all the effort that her mother had put into making her space comfortable.
There’s no doubt that this Christmas present was a hit.
Sammie wasn’t the only one who came up with a creative Christmas present this year.
An 8-year-old girl named Adriana Pollock, in Newark, Ohio, has spent the last two months writing a whopping 2,000 letters and cards. Their destination? They’re bound for nursing and foster homes for the people who really need some Christmas spirit.
“I thought that nursing homes and foster homes weren’t having as good of Christmases as me and my sister so I thought that we should give them Christmas cards,” Adriana said. “Some people that don’t have as good of Christmases don’t have as much Christmas joy.”
It’s an effort that took the third-grader from October to complete.
In 2017, she sent a total of 400 cards, but this year, she wanted to top that. The work last year took her a few weeks. This time, she started months in advance and used much of her free time filling out the cards.
Adriana said she just wants to know that the people who receive her cards are happy.
Adriana’s mother, Alexandra DeVictor, says she is extremely proud of her daughter, who came up with the idea last year after she saw her mother sending Christmas cards to friends and family — but not to the people she thought could really use them.
DeVictor says she’s amazed that Adriana has been so determined in her plan, especially with the enormous amount of extra work she did herself this year.
“For her to then want to keep going with it, it just has me in awe because she has devoted a lot of time and energy to this,” DeVictor said.
Adriana spent her weekends and after-school hours meticulously creating and filling out the cards. One day, when there was no school, she says she went to her grandmother’s house and worked on the cards all day long. It was a long time to have an excess of Christmas spirit, but Adriana never tired.
Some of the cards were generic.
Those were filled with a personal message from Adriana: “You may not know us but we love you”. Others were personal photo cards with pictures of Adriana, her 7-year-old sister Aria, and their family dog, Bailey.
In all, the 8-year-old filled out about 500 cards by hand. It’s been a big effort — one that for many people who have no one else to reach out to them this Christmas, won’t soon forget.
Adriana’s community rallied around her. Community donations helped purchase the Christmas cards, while local women came together to knit 200 hats for the foster children who will receive Adriana’s cards. The hats will go to the children in foster care with the House of New Hope in St. Louisville.
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