Donor Information
🎉 What’s New in 2026
Since Hornets’ Holidays began in 2021, the program has grown from serving a few dozen families to providing Christmas gifts for more than 300 Valley Center children in a single year. As the program grows, we continue evaluating our process to ensure it works well for participating families, generous donors, and our behind-the-scenes volunteers.
In 2025, we tested a hybrid giving model that relied heavily on an Amazon registry. While the registry offered families more control over the items selected for their children, it did not simplify the process as we had hoped. In fact, receiving, sorting, tracking, and matching hundreds of individual deliveries created significantly more work for our volunteer team.
We learned a great deal from the experience, and in 2026, our adopter matching program is returning!
How Adopter Matching Works
Community members, families, businesses, churches, and groups can sign up to become adopters. Adopters will be matched with participating children and receive information to help them shop for meaningful gifts based on each child’s interests, wants, and needs.
This return to direct adopter matching will allow us to:
Create a more personal connection between adopters and the children they support
Keep each child’s gifts together throughout the process
Reduce the amount of receiving, sorting, and matching required behind the scenes
Make it easier for families, adopters, and volunteers to understand the process
Continue giving Valley Center families a dignified and joyful Christmas experience
Important 2026 Dates
The adopter sign-up will be open:
September 1–26, 2026
Additional instructions, deadlines, and program information will be posted on our website as they become available.
The heart of Hornets’ Holidays hasn’t changed — children in Valley Center will still be matched with generous donors who want to make Christmas brighter. We are simply returing to the process that best supports our families, adopters, and volunteer team.
How Can You Help?
VC Angel Trees
Pick up a tag from a local tree, shop for the gifts, and drop them off. It’s a perfect option for families who enjoy the tradition of shopping together.
Adopter Sign Up
Click below to sign up to be matched with a child this holiday season. You will be sent a varity of information about the child to help you pick out the perfect gifts. Drop off your gifts and thats it!
Check Back on Sep 1st
Make a Donation
Make a monetary donation to support unadopted children, supplement gift lists, and provide grocery gift cards for families.
Volunteer With Us!
We couldn’t do it without our volunteers! Whether its sorting, wrapping gifts or greeting families, click the link below to sign-up! We can’t wait to see you!
FAQs
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Yes! You can put specific requests on the sign-up form or choose in-person tree tags that fit your preferences.
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Nope!
Families have the option to have our amazing volunteers wrap their gifts on gift pick up day. If you want to include specific wrapping items with your gifts you are more than welcome to do so, but you don’t have to at all!
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That’s awesome! Head over to our Donation Page to learn more!
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Of course! Just indicate a contact person on the sign up form and add in your group name.
If you are adopting as a group, we ask that your group gather all items together before drop off instead of each person bringing in their items.