Each year thousands suffer after surviving a natural disaster. As Carolyn spoke to survivors, they often mention missing the Christmas ornaments they lost.

At Operation Ornaments we understand we cannot replace the memories of those lost ornaments but hope we can help survivors begin to create new memories. We want these survivors to understand they have not been forgotten and each year as they trim their trees, we hope they will remember people from all over the country, and the world, cared enough to make and send an ornament. We believe disaster survivors are among the most under-served communities in the United States.

We choose those to serve when the disaster happens 10-12 months or longer before the next Christmas. Any sooner than that survivors may still be living in tents, hotels, or FEMA housing and are not ready or equipped to accept ornaments. We recruit a volunteer in the area of the disaster to commit to collect, sort, package and distribute ornaments. They also contact local agencies working with survivors and arrange for distribution in conjunction with them. Coordinators are our “boots on the ground” and meet with media outlets to explain our efforts, get the word out to survivors and to recruit crafters. We cannot serve a disaster if we cannot find a committed coordinator who lives in the area.

As of January 2025, we have served over 7,000 families and 24,000 individuals and collected over 124,000 ornaments. We hope to grow each year, enabling us to serve more and more survivors.