Our Past Celebrations
We are grateful to all those who participated and generously contributed toward our efforts. Your generosity allowed us to continue to reach out to the most vulnerable, the children living in New York City shelters.
In the previous 21 years, we are proud to have brought smiles to the faces of more than 15,000 homeless children by treating them to Broadway shows during the holiday season. At times we have taken over entire theaters, with over 1,000 children from shelters watching the performance. These magical evenings buoy the spirit of the children and make them feel special and wanted throughout the year, despite their circumstances.
In keeping with our Broadway tradition, in 2024 we treated hundreds of children living in NYC homeless shelters to Back to the Future: The Musical at the Winter Garden Theatre. In December 2023, we took 300 children to see MJ the Musical on Broadway. As per usual, we treated the children to a celebratory dinner, gave them educational supplies, and in the spirit of the holidays Santa greeted each child and handed out gifts.
In 2022, we took 150 children to see Disney’s Aladdin on Broadway. In summer 2019, we treated children froom two shelters to a day in the sun: first, they explored the Long Island Aquarium in Long Island and then Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center. In December that year, NYCCHP took 500 children to the IMAX Theater at AMC Lincoln Square to see Frozen 2! In 2018 we took 900 children to see the Broadway musical King Kong gave each one dinner and gifts from Santa.
In 2017 we treated 700 children to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. In addition to a backpack & educational supplies, every child was given a jumbo chocolate bar by Santa — and, of course, a Golden Ticket!
We launched our first event in 2003 at Trinity School with an afternoon of fun and games that included a performance by the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Since then, each year we have taken hundreds of children to venues such as the Big Top of the Big Apple Circus and under the lights of Broadway at Lion King, Mary Poppins, Bring It On, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, Wicked and Aladdin.