- What's up y'all.
Maybe nowhere in America is the holiday season
more celebrated than in Grapevine, Texas.
It's officially the Christmas capital of my home state.
And you know how we do, we go big, right Texas?
(audience cheering) That's right.
We got some Texas people here today.
Each year my next guest go all out to ensure
Grapevine's most vulnerable population feels the spirit
as much as everyone else,
they open an annual pop-up store where anyone in need
can shop for the latest and greatest toys
and gifts for their loved ones without paying a dime,
it's such a beautiful thing.
And that makes them good neighbors.
(audience applauding) (cheerful music)
♪ Good Neighbors ♪
From the Christmas Cottage,
please welcome Stacy Pacholik and Shonda Schaefer y'all.
(audience applauding)
Before we talk about the Cottage
and basically a Christmas Cottage sounds so magical,
and I don't know why they haven't made
that Hallmark special yet, they should,
but tell us about Christmas in Grapevine.
I do actually know Christmas in Grapevine,
but tell everyone else.
- Yes and you mentioned Hallmark,
they need to take a note from Grapevine.
- They need to come to the downtown area. Yes.
- Yes. It is huge. You know,
people come literally from all over the world
to experience Christmas in Grapevine.
It's 40 days and nights of amazing activities.
We have reindeer's, we have Santa Clause,
we have Buddy the elf.
You name it, if it's Christmas, it's in Grapevine.
It's pretty amazing.
- I love how Texas it is. It's just like (cheering)
I love it. It's so good.
And Christmas, like what better time to be that emotion?
So the Christmas Cottage plays a big part in the festivity,
so explain more about what it is.
- So Grace's are an umbrella nonprofit
that does all sorts of programs,
specifically designed to help families
who are most vulnerable. So we have a food pantry.
We have a medical clinic,
we do housing for families coming out of homelessness.
We do- - Wonderful.
- It's wonderful and over the summer
we do a feeding program for children.
We serve what, almost 40,000 lunches last summer.
- Wow.
- So we do a lot of things year around.
- Especially last summer. What a beautiful thing.
That was a hard summer for everyone.
- But Christmas time, you know,
just like in Grapevine, we do it up big, but you know,
really our big philosophy is about maintaining
the stability of these families through
what can be a difficult time.
- Absolutely.
So you offer way more than toys, right?
- We do. Grace provides practically anything
you would need to celebrate for a family for Christmas.
So besides the toys for every child,
they also get wrapping paper, bows,
tape, batteries for any toy that needs it.
- Let's stop there. - Right.
- Every Christmas I forget batteries.
It's like in everything that I get is like,
you need battery.
This Christmas I'm so stocked on batteries.
(laughter)
That's important. - And it's expensive.
- It is.
And there's so many,
every one of them take like four batteries.
- Absolutely.
- Sorry I keep going, it's so beautiful.
- That's all right. - I'm sorry.
- And then in addition to that, they get a family gift.
So that can be anything from a Crock-Pot to new bedding,
to a vacuum cleaner.
We want everybody to have something
to open on Christmas morning. In addition to that,
we also do food baskets.
So we provide not only the traditional recipes,
the items that would make those traditional recipes,
but we go further than that.
And they're given breakfast items,
they're given baking items that will last long past that day
because our focus is to provide them with everything
they need for their family to be able to celebrate
the holiday following their own traditions.
And that's what we're trying to do.
- It's such a beautiful thing. (audience applauding)
It's such a cool thing.
So you have a bigger vision though, for the Cottage, right?
- We do.
You know, our goal would be to find a permanent space
and maybe even be able to expand the program a little bit
during the rest of the year, maybe a Christmas in July.
We know that we do a lot of work at the beginning of school,
getting kids ready to go back to school. So, you know,
school supplies and clothing for school.
So we have this vision,
but, and we had a building that we really liked,
but the price tag is really high
for a little nonprofit like us,
so we're just gonna keep kind of praying,
and know that our program is
something we believe that is God inspired,
and if he lays it out for us, then we'll be ready.
But in the meantime,
we just keep making do with what we've got.
- And look, you Texas smile right now,
I love it so much.
(laughter) I miss home.
Well, H-E-B's a spirit of giving is
deep rooted in their values
and they stand with Texas communities in times of need.
They love the work that you're doing
to help bring joy to Texans,
so they're gonna give you $10,000 to just help.
(audience applauding)
- Thank you. - And thank you so much,
it's such a beautiful thing y'all are doing.
It's such an important thing
and it's such a compassionate thing, so thank you.
It's such a great representation of Texas.