We were SO excited to host our first Donuts with Santa on December 15th at Evelyn’s Park Conservancy – and what a fabulously festive morning it was! The weather could not have been more gorgeous for a December morning, Santa was jolly, the donuts were aplenty and the coffee was flowing! If you weren’t able to make it to Donuts with Santa this year, don’t worry… after such amazing success we plan to make it a yearly event! And, of course, we will be offering more family-friendly events in the New Year as well so stay tuned.
We want to first take the time to thank our amazing sponsors for this event. The Learning Experience was this year’s Title Sponsor! The Learning Experience has been positively impacting families for more than 30 years by developing and implementing ground-breaking care and early education programs throughout the country, including 17 locations in the greater Houston area. And in addition to full time child care, they also after before and after school programming and summer camps. This event would not have been possible without our amazing venue host, Evelyn’s Park Conservancy. The park hosts events throughout the week, including fitness classes, community events and more so if you enjoyed the space, be sure to visit them again.
Of course, we can’t have Donuts with Santa without donuts, so thanks to Houston’s favorite donut company, Shipley Donuts for providing those delicious treats. And, if donuts weren’t your thing {who are we kidding though?!?}, we also had KIND bars, Happi Drinks , Mangoozer fruit pouches and Rise Buddy rice snacks on hand to keep the littles satisfied.
The Little Gym – Houston/Bellaire is another sponsor we are so incredibly thankful to have had at the event! They specialize in unique educational classes that revolve around active play for your kiddos. From parent/child to grade school gymnastics, dance, parents’ night outs and more… they have so much to offer! And Troll lovers were happy to see Trolls: The Beat Goes On from Netflix at Donuts with Santa. Many happy kids walked away with some Troll swag to complete their viewing experience. Don’t forget to keep up with Poppy and Branch on Netflix!
And what’s a holiday season without cookies?!? Michael’s Cookie Jar generously provided snowflake cookies with icing and sprinkles to decorate an edible masterpiece! Michael’s Cookie Jar has been serving some of the finest cookies around to the greater Houston for more than 11 years and the perfect place to stock up on any last minute holiday goodies you need to add to your menu.
Thanks to Kumon Math and Reading Center in West University, Santa took some amazing photos with families AND was willing to listen to some last minute additions to the Christmas list. If you’ve been considering getting some academic enrichment for your child, be sure to check out Kumon in West University!
We were so honored to have Basil & Quinn Photography take our photos for Donuts with Santa and Countless Occasions provide the amazingly festive balloon arch! We hope your photo is a memory for years to come and one that you are able to display each year around the holidays.
And who can forget about the amazing kid-friendly swag bag from brands including Kwik Stix tempera paints, Rise Buddy, Mangoozers Fruit Pouches, Bird’s Barbershop, OOLY, Workman’s Friend Superior Barrier Skin Cream, Chick-Fil-A and Kleenhanz! And the babies left with a pretty sweet bag as well including amazing items from B. Box, MAM and Stuck on You.
In an effort to build community and give back, we always select a local charity to partner with for each of our major events. For this particular event, we asked that attendees brought an unwrapped toy for Kids Meals, Inc.. Their mission is to end childhood hunger by delivering healthy meals to Houston’s hungriest preschool-aged children and through collaboration with their families provide resources to end the cycle of poverty. And thanks to our generous contributions, we were able to deliver a huge box full of amazing toys to Kids Meals that afternoon for them to wrap and distribute at their holiday party the following week. We were able to give away TWO amazing Flybar, Inc. scooters and matching helmets for a giveaway. Everyone that brought a toy was entered into this amazing giveaway!
Thanks again to all of our amazing sponsors and those who were able to attend – especially with everyone’s patience during our postponement thanks to some nasty weather the weekend before! We hope you had an amazing time and are looking forward to the planning of next year’s Donuts with Santa. Happy Holidays from the Houston Moms Blog Team!
