'Layaway Santas' Help Families in Need for the Holidays


The idea of a jolly man in a red suit shimmying down your chimney with gifts may not be 100 percent factual… but the concept of Santa is real, and it lives in all the do-gooders making other people's holiday wishes come true.

"Layaway Santas" from all across the country have been paying off the layaway bills of strangers, hoping to spread holiday cheer to those who need it most.

Ever since the Associated Press ran a story on this phenomenon in 2011, several stores have announced the remarkable number of Good Samaritans paying off layaway bills of others.

Toys "R" Us reported 704 Layaway Santa instances in 2012, while Wal-Mart has had more than 1,000 this holiday season alone. Kmart says that kindhearted strangers have spent more than $1.5 million paying off layaway contracts at their stores over the years.

Most donors are anonymous, but not everyone chooses to keep their generosity a secret. Dave Wilson, a 65-year-old man who grew up poor but now owns 17 car dealerships, spent $18,000 last year on paying off strangers' layaway accounts at Kmart.

"It's not passing out Christmas hams or turkeys," Wilson tells NBC. "They have to pay at least 10 percent… this is something people have thought about and made an investment in."

If you'd like to become a Layaway Santa, you don't need a beard or any reindeer - just head to a store that has a layaway department, and tell the employees you'd like to help pay off a stranger's account. You can donate a specific dollar amount, or tell them you just want to help pay for a kid's Christmas present. No matter how you do it, you'll be doing a good thing.

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