MAUCKPORT, Ind. (WDRB) -- Charissa Craig's kids just handed her "the list."
"I'm telling you they can write a book, because they think of anything and everything they want for Christmas," she said.
Craig is no amateur. She is checking off as much as she can as early as she can. The shelves she's browsing — full of dolls, bikes and games — are not inside a place where everyone else is shopping. Craig is at the South Pole Christmas Store.
"We do this for the parents," said Brian Bailey, who created the store.
Many of those parents are struggling to come up with the money the holidays often demand.
"It feels like you have a hole in your heart," Craig said. "All of my problems started around the time I lost my mom. It just hit me real hard."
The overwhelming grief made it seem impossible to work a job for a while.
Charissa Craig was given 300 dollars worth of "Santa bucks," the only kind of money the store takes.
"She was my best friend, and then all of the sudden, she's no longer here," Craig said.
Her husband also lost his job in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Once you're in that kind of hole, it takes a while to get out. People in the south part of Harrison County get that.
"We live in one of the poorest parts of one of the poorest counties in the whole state of Indiana," Bailey said.
He had that in mind when he started collecting toys last year.
"We just got it in our heads that we wanted to do a toy drive for local families," he said.
The people in charge at nearby Squire Boone Caverns saw what he was doing and wanted to help.
The Christmas store is meant to be a way for parents to still be able to shop for their kids.
"They reached out to us and said, 'Hey, we have this wonderful cabin out here on the highway. Would you like to use it to give away your toys?'" Craig said.
The thrift store he started at the cabin in the off season pays for the toys on the shelves now. Harrison County deputies go door to door in December, handing out "Santa Bucks" and letting people who need it know they've been selected for a shopping spree.
"This store is yours for an hour," Bailey said. "You can take all the time you want in that hour and pick what your kids will want."
For Craig, it means no more worrying. For her kids, Samuel and Natalia, it means the kind of Christmas morning they both deserve.
"They wake up and they have all kinds of gifts," she said.
That's thanks to a Christmas cabin stocked with heartfelt holiday magic.
If you'd like to help keep the Christmas store's shelves stocked, you can email: santastoreharrisonco@gmail.com
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