Krys Midgett Keeps Santa Coming with Give A Little Christmas

Jason: What if a kid in Wilson County is lying in bed on Christmas Eve, completely certain Santa is coming? And what if that kid is right? And the only reason is that a stranger spent 11 months making sure of it? And what if the whole thing started because a songwriter who looked like Santa mentioned an idea to a reporter, and the reporter believed it. Today you'll meet the woman who's behind [inaudible] keeping that promise for 14 Christmases, and she'll tell you why the gifts have to come from Santa and not from her. Welcome to You Matter Nashville, where we celebrate the people and stories that make our community so special. We believe that everyone has a story to tell, and more importantly, everyone here matters.

Mindy: We're your hosts, Jason and Mindy Hoover, and we're passionate about shining a light on individuals who are making a real impact right here in Middle Tennessee. This is about community, connection, and the incredible people who are making a difference.

Jason: Let's dive in as we uncover powerful stories and meet remarkable people whose journeys will inspire us all, right here on You Matter Nashville.

Jason: Hey friends, welcome to You Matter Nashville. I'm Jason Hoover, along with my beautiful, wonderful wife, Mindy, and we're so glad you're spending time with us today. Today we are joined by Krys Midgett, who started a Wilson County charity called Give A Little Christmas that has been making sure kids wake up to gifts from Santa since 2012. Krys, welcome to the show.

Krys: Hello, thank you for having me.

Mindy: We are so glad that you are with us today. I guess we just really want to start from the beginning, see what's going on with you guys and how all of this got started.

Krys: In 2012, I interviewed Glenn Douglas Tubb, who I had been friends with for several years, and he said that he wanted to do a Christmas party for kids in homeless shelters. I said, "Let me know about it. I would love to help." Well, come December of 2012, I had launched a magazine called Give A Little Nashville, and I called him and I said, "Hey, how's the party going?" And that was in December. And he said it fell through. I said, "Give me a minute." So we found a venue, and we made it happen. We helped about 50 kids have Christmas that year. And we also helped several others besides that that I didn't count, because we would have gifts left over. I would post on Facebook, "Does anybody know anybody who's going through something that could use some help?" And people would say, "Well, my neighbor had a fire," or "So-and-so got laid off," or "This person has cancer." So we would help the families that were just going to struggle, the last-minute emergency families. That's how it started the first year, and from that it just kept going.

For about three years, we did the homeless elders. And then we discovered that the need was really the ones stuck in the middle, where somebody just got laid off, and these emergencies happened. We take families all the way to Christmas Eve. We have a deadline. Our deadline is December 15. But if there's an actual emergency after that, or a family misses the deadline, we don't want kids to not have Christmas. So our family, along with the owners of Shiloh Music Center and my partner for the charity, Olivia West Hedges, we all get together, and my husband and my kids, we'll go and deliver gifts. We'll just be on top of it and make sure that the kids get to wake up because Santa came.

Jason: So I've got to ask, do y'all dress up?

Krys: Yes, absolutely. I am Bubbles the Elf, and my partner is Jingles the Elf. And we have Pixie the Elf and Trixie the Elf, and one of the owners of Shiloh Music Center, Karen Hedges, is Pixie the Elf. So we have so much fun.

Jason: I'm looking at y'all's pictures on your website, dressed up as the elves. I'm assuming this other lady in here is your friend?

Krys: The redhead? Yes, Olivia. She is also a fabulous singer-songwriter, and we're doing a Christmas album together. It's a work in progress, a slow one. But we have a great duet that she's going to do with Gary Chapman, called Gray Song, that we wrote with him.

Jason: Nice. Is this for this year?

Krys: And it is a benefit for the charity as well.

Mindy: Wonderful. Wonderful.

Jason: So before we dive too far into the charity, I want to help our listeners get to know you just a little bit more. I had to list it here. You are a journalist, a lyricist, an editor, a philanthropist, an event organizer, and many other things. So when somebody asks what you do, how do you explain this?

Krys: I have ADHD and I do a lot of things. It's like, "Squirrel! Look, another new shiny idea."

Mindy: I wasn't going to say that, but I was like, look, [inaudible] high functioning ADHD [inaudible] like us.

Krys: So I love crafting. I do glass etching and I do painting. I'm like, "Hey, I want to learn how to do this," and I'll go buy all the things to do it. But really my hobby is buying craft supplies and hoping that I make something later. I was thinking about candles. Anyway, I'm just all over the place. That's what I do. I used to run a music magazine called Strum Magazine several years ago, and that led into Give A Little Nashville, which is my magazine about charities and how celebrities give back. I'm not quite willing to let that stuff go, so eventually I might post articles on the website for Give A Little Nashville. And then I do Life Between the Lakes magazine, which is a Wilson County magazine about the community. I say it's like a potluck. Everybody brings something to the table. But everything I do, I really started to help my charity. My charity is the main priority. If something doesn't benefit the charity in some way, I don't want to spend my time on it as much.

I am a member of Kiwanis Club in Mount Juliet, and they help me with the charity. I do marketing. I'm the marketing director for Huntington Learning Center, and they benefit the charity because they are a year-round drop-off point for toys, and people get discounts if they refer kids. The kids get discounts if they say "Give A Little Christmas." You can go in there and sponsor a family off their tree. You can do the same thing at Shiloh. We just have a lot of good partnerships in the community. And I like to help everybody. I love to help people. That's my thing.

Mindy: And the partnership, that's just key. Why duplicate things across different platforms with different nonprofits when you can all work together for the same good and help each other out? So that's wonderful that you guys do that. And I love that you saw a need and you didn't go, "Well, that would be really nice if we could do it. I'm so sorry you guys don't have a place to do your party this year." What most people would have done is say, "It's the Christmas season, and that's just really bad," and they just keep on going with their day. You said, "These kids are going to miss out? I've got to do something." And you just started going across and bringing people together and making things happen. Even if it's just one kid, that's great, but those 50 kids' lives were able to be celebrated and got to enjoy themselves that very, very first year. And that's just amazing. Taking the initiative, putting in work during the holiday season, and getting it done.

Krys: The fun thing about that party was that we had a lot of the older Opry stars and songwriters singing Christmas carols with the kids. [inaudible] But it was amazing, because for years they got into it and they helped us. And when we first started this charity, it was very involved in the music industry. I think some of our first toy boxes were at NSAI, the Nashville Songwriters Association International. So some of our first toy drives were all over Nashville in the music industry.

Mindy: That's really great.

Krys: Right. As I said, we're songwriters, so we're very involved. This year we'll have autographed lyrics. At the songwriter festival I just went to, I got a lot of people volunteering to do autographed lyrics for the silent auction. Stormy Warren is going to MC it. So it's a pretty fun event.

Mindy: So simple, having a signature on lyrics. It's not a huge cost for everybody, but does it mean a lot to the people who are bidding on it. So that's such a clever way to bring in funds.

Jason: And yes, it sounds a lot like how you started Love the Dress. You had a girl that couldn't go.

Mindy: Couldn't go to prom, and I was like, "Yeah, you will." We only had a hundred dresses that very first year for girls to come and choose from, and we had about a hundred girls show up.

Jason: But you started out and you went out and asked people to donate. And just like you did, you took a concept and made it real.

Mindy: Saw the need. Saw the need. Because it's not the fault of the kids, or even the fault of the parents, that people fall on hard times. And one of the other things that really tugged at me is that you don't make them show you financials. It's not that kind of need-based. Because I want to tell you, I was a teacher in Franklin, and I had kids who lived here and their parents were barely making rent or barely making their house payment, and they didn't have the extra funds for the kids to have a half birthday or half Christmas, or to have a prom dress, or any of those extra things. They were just barely making it. And a lot of people don't realize that there's a different kind of poverty, when the parents lose a job or they get downgraded in their job or whatever the case may be and they're barely making ends meet. And that's why we never turn anybody away. If you stand in line and you come to the charity events and everything, you know what I'm saying? It's a very humbling thing. It's very humbling. Why are you going to turn them away?

Krys: Yeah, you know, we had a grandmother who was getting custody of her grandkids and had spent $25,000 on lawyer fees and everything. She needed custody of those grandbabies, and she said, "I'm not going to be able to pay for their Christmas, because all the money went to lawyers, but on paper we make so much money." And in reality, we don't have it. So we made sure those kids had Christmas, because that's what you do. You just make sure that the children wake up on Christmas morning and Santa came. And we go from zero to 18, because a lot of charities stop at 13, because teenagers are harder. Well, the problem is those 14-year-olds don't need to be watching their 10-year-old brother open gifts. As a mom, I would be heartbroken if I had nothing for my older kids and they had to watch their younger siblings. Those older kids are struggling with those parents. And sometimes, even if they have a job, they're helping with the bills, they're helping with this, they're helping with that. I lost my dad when I was 13, and my partner lost her dad at 15, and we cared deeply about the younger siblings and making sure that they got what they wanted. I hate to even say it, but I would have probably had hurt feelings if I had nothing done. [inaudible] Come on, honey. They tell you to buy yourself what you want. We're so busy at Christmas time. It is so busy at Christmas time that I sometimes forget to, I don't even have time to decorate. I will send my daughter-in-law out to get our Christmas presents, and she'll decorate our house for us. But you know, sometimes when I'm shopping, I'll do it months before. I'll buy myself something and say, "Honey, this is from you." "Thank you." I mean, he's the one that makes all the money. I joke that the more money we raise for the charity, the less my husband spends on kids he doesn't know. It's not really a joke.

Jason: And he always buys the right gift.

Krys: Yeah, for me, yes. He does a good job.

Jason: Well, so I'm going to go back to the very beginning when that concept happened, and set the stage for us. When you were a reporter, out with your magazine, or...

Krys: Yeah, it was Give A Little Nashville.

Jason: Give A Little Nashville. And you said it was with Glenn...

Krys: Yeah, yes. Ernest Tubb.

Jason: Okay. So kind of paint us a picture of that conversation that got this all started.

Krys: I was doing the interview with him because I'd met him several times. I met him through Guy Gilchrist, who is a cartoonist and singer-songwriter in his own right. I met him years before that. And he looked like Santa Claus, but I didn't know that he and Dottie dressed up as Santa and Mrs. Claus. We were just talking, and we were talking for hours. I was interviewing him, learning all about him and his life. And I love charity. The magazine was about charities and how celebrities give back. I didn't make any money, so I figured I might as well help other people with it. It was a way, in my head, to help multiple charities. Every time I would do an interview with anyone, my favorite question is, "What charity do you hold close to your heart?" And the thought process was, if they have a charity nobody's heard of, their fans would hear about it and maybe want to donate to it. So it's a way to help lots of charities. That was my initial thought when I started Give A Little Nashville. So I was talking to him about charities, and we got to talking, and he said, "This is what I want to do." And that became one amazing relationship. Dottie and Glenn both said that me taking that on and starting the charity with them changed their life.

Mindy: Yeah, not...

Jason: Yeah. You know, we never really know how far out our generosity carries.

Mindy: Now, how did you get all of these artists on board?

Jason: It's for charm and charisma.

Krys: Well, I work in the music industry, because I first ran a music magazine, Strum Magazine, and I met people through the music magazine. And Nashville's a small town. We just got to know each other. My partner with the charity, Olivia, is a singer-songwriter, and she was actually doing a round at the Bluebird in 2007. That's when I met her. When I interviewed Glenn, who I already had a good relationship with anyway, I just pulled her into the mix too, because our kids were young and our kids were best friends and we all hung out together. If you're hanging around me and you want to actually spend time with me, you'd better do whatever crazy things I'm doing that I pull you into. I'm hard to keep up with, and she could keep up with me. And my friend Sandy, she helped me with it a lot. Sandy knows everybody in the music industry. She's amazing. She would introduce me to people, and that's how we got a lot of music people involved. And of course Olivia. And then Olivia met Paul over at Shiloh Music Center, and they wound up married, and Paul and my husband were good friends in junior high and high school.

Mindy: Again, small world. [inaudible]

Krys: And that happened because of the other magazine that I started in 2019, Life Between the Lakes. That's how we got involved. And that's how I have my current Santa and Mrs. Claus, Glenn and Jamie Hanks. So it's another Glenn, because unfortunately my first, my OG Santa Claus, passed. My husband had to be Santa one year, and he looked more like a Viking Santa. I mean, Santa looks great. And then my uncle Paul was Santa for a couple of years, but then he got pancreatic cancer. But then I met Glenn and Jamie, and Glenn became Santa Claus here in Mount Juliet. He was made to be Santa Claus. He is amazing. But Glenn Tubb, he passed away in 2021, I believe. And the doctor had had him stop being Santa years before that, because he would get sick. [inaudible] Yeah, because he was in his eighties.

Mindy: Well, I want to hear about the process. You have all these toys. How do you get the mass supply of toys into the hands of the families?

Krys: Okay, that's a big process. We have an application process, of course, and the person that applies, the parent or whoever is referring them, gives me the wish list of what the kids want. They don't always get exactly what they want, but we try to get them something similar. We have a building on our farm that we call Santa's Workshop, and that's where the toys are stored. Then we have the volunteers come out, and we go through the building and pick toys out based on what the kids have asked for. I have a great volunteer, Erin Dart. She's a chiropractor over at Tinker Chiropractic, and she does all kinds of things and helps tremendously. Our volunteers are amazing. We organize, and we have volunteers come out and pick and choose.

We also have a list on our website where you can sponsor families. You can say, "I want family 0063, and they have three kids, and these kids want these things." You don't have to get what they asked for, but our goal is at least $200 per kid. That's a minimum. You can go bigger if you want. You get the children in the family, the children and the teenagers. If you want to buy something for the parents, great, but we don't have a wish list for them or sizes. You can get bath and body things, or gift cards for food, whatever you want to do. It's up to the donor. They can choose the family and sign up and say, "Hey, I would love for this family to be who I pick up for," and we give them a date.

I have a great volunteer who gets a hold of all the parents ahead of time. If there's a question about their application, she goes through the application process. Her name is Jara Peake, and she helps a lot with that. She will also call the other local charities, because we're trying to make sure that we don't have, say, if Big Brothers has... There's a Toys for Tots charity in Wilson County, and Christmas for All too. She'll call the ladies there and say, "Hey, do you have this person on your list?" And we share our list with them. Then she'll email the parent and say, "Yay, congratulations. I saw you were with Big Brothers, so you need to check with them about your pickup day." So we share the love. We need to make sure that everybody gets help. Sometimes somebody will put an application in all the different places because they don't know which one is going to pick it up. So we just make sure that that's taken care of, and we have volunteers that work with that.

Then we have a partnership with West Wilson Middle School in Mount Juliet, and they let us come for a couple of days at the end of December to do a parent pickup day. The parents come, and we have a big black contractor bag full of the gifts. We have volunteers take it out to their car, we check their license and make sure they're who they say they are, and then a volunteer puts it in the trunk. It's in a black contractor bag because Santa brings it on Christmas Eve, so it can't be visible. If they happen to bring the kids, or when they go home, we don't want to spoil the surprise. The parents get to pick what's from them and what's from Santa, and we give wrapping paper if they need it and stockings if they need it. Right now, we're going to need a lot more toys, but we have a pretty good stock right now at Santa's Workshop. Santa's Workshop needs a lot of work too.

Jason: So where is Santa's Workshop?

Krys: Well, it's not open to the public. It's in Mount Juliet. Only volunteers can go there. Elves. Just the elves get to know where Santa's Workshop is. It's definitely not open to the public. It's an old farm building. I think I told you about that. It's an old farm building that needs a lot of work. So unless they're coming to volunteer and help fix up the building or organize some toys, that's the only time they get to see Santa's Workshop.

Mindy: Now, out of these toys, how many toys does each child get, normally?

Krys: Well, again, we try to do about $200 worth, maybe. But we have a hard and fast rule, it's four to five toys a child is what we want. And then stockings with some stocking stuffers if they need it. And then clothes, if they ask for clothes or if we have clothes that fit. We do clothes and shoes. And Christmas trees. That's a big one. We have a day that the parents can come out. Well, Circle P Ranch let me do it at their place last year. I hope they do again this year. We do a Christmas party, and the families on our list can come and sign up and get a Christmas tree if we have one available. We're about out right now, so I need to get some more. But we have plenty of Christmas decorations. We have all kinds of things, you know. They can come out and have snacks and cookies and pictures with Santa, and then the parents can pick from the stuff that we have that was donated to us from a couple of different department stores.

Jason: That's neat. So do y'all take donations for Christmas decorations as well?

Krys: Yeah. And trees, yeah.

Jason: Go ahead.

Krys: I was going to say, At Home department store in Franklin had donated a few years ago, and we had three truckloads of stuff. We just now got rid of the last of their trees.

Mindy: When they closed, didn't they close a few years back?

Krys: No, no, they were... Yeah, At Home. They do a reset, you know. When they're going to donate, they either donate it or just trash it. And we had three big... Sherry Mullins at Mullins Realty Group lets us have her big moving truck, and we tote it back and forth anytime we need it.

Mindy: That's incredible.

Krys: Yeah, she's very helpful.

Jason: Now, you also are very adamant that it is Santa that delivers the toys.

Krys: Yes. Santa is real. I completely believe in Santa Claus.

Jason: He's real. It's famous. We just heard it. Why is that so important to you?

Krys: It's keeping the magic alive, the hope, the magic. I mean, if a child believes, then a child should get that magic. And we're all a little bit of Santa Claus. If you help others, then you can be Santa Claus too. You can be an elf. But I love being an elf. It's my favorite thing to do. It's why I wake up in the morning, and why I don't get sleep in December.

Jason: So fun fact, we make our kids pass out the gifts, and my aunt, well, I guess our grand aunt, bought little elf shoes and an elf hat for them to wear. They still wear it, dude.

Mindy: They still wear it. [inaudible] they were probably five and eight, or something like that. But now they're 17 and 23, and they still...

Krys: Wear it. That's fine. My kids are grown. My 19-year-old was five when I started the charity.

Jason: Mm, okay. Yeah, I like how you said the magic. That's so true. That's one of the things that I love about being a parent, seeing the amazement on our kids' faces, going back to when I was a kid thinking about Christmas times and all the different memories. I remember one time, I don't know if I've ever shared this, maybe I have, but the quick version is I wanted a certain Lego set, and this was back before they cost, you know, a thousand dollars or whatever it was. And I actually went up in the attic, and I was a little, I don't know, probably eight, nine, ten, and [inaudible] it just so happened I had seen it over there. So I was like, sweet. And come Christmas Eve, when we had our family Christmas, we opened all the gifts, and there was no Lego set. And I couldn't ask, "Where's the Lego set?" because I went snooping. So in the tradition, we would have our Christmas, then leave and go to my grandparents', and we would be there for a couple of days. So this whole time I was sitting there thinking, wait, well, who was the Lego set for? And it wasn't maybe a week or so later, I guess when they were putting out Christmas, they found the Lego set.

Mindy: My mom did the same thing. She was flipping her mattress and found the Barbie clothes that she had bought for Christmas. And I was sitting here like, dude, my brother has all these Christmas presents and I don't have any. All of them, they were flat back then, right? The packages were. And she just flipped the mattress, and they were all underneath there. It was literally like six months later. It was in the middle of summer when I got my Christmas presents.

Krys: I have done that. I've done that with my son's birthday presents recently. I'd be cleaning my room and say, "Oh yeah, I forgot about this. I forgot about this too." But Christmas is really bad, because it's so chaotic. One year I gave away the presents that I bought for my kids by accident.

Jason: Oh no. How did that happen?

Krys: It was before we had a building for our stuff, and it was in my house. We were storing it in the basement and different places, wherever we could store it. And I think I may have thought, well, I'll go get him something else, because I need to finish this bag for this family. And then I think the very first Christmas, I had to do an IOU to my older kids. My younger ones were fine, but because Grandma went crazy with those. But I had the older kids, and I think we wound up giving money, which they love anyway. But I'm like, "I know you wanted this, but all those stores were closed when I finished delivering."

Jason: I'm so glad Black Friday's not a thing.

Mindy: Yeah, you just go online and you buy stuff and you're done. We were going to the stores and...

Jason: I mean, yeah, I'm not an early morning person, so those were very troubling times.

Mindy: The day after Thanksgiving. Yeah, I mean...

Krys: We used to have fun doing that shopping. I don't like staying up all night, though. And also, I didn't stay up all night for that. I would just go the next day and say, look at all of these, because people were watching DVDs back then, so I would get so many cheap DVDs and give those out for Christmas as extra gifts for the kids on the list. So that was always fun. But I don't have time for all that anymore.

Mindy: No, we don't either. I'm like, when it started backing up until 11 PM, and then it was Thanksgiving night, and then you were out all night. I was like, no.

Krys: We're back to eight. No. No, enjoy the time to vegetate [inaudible] because you eat all that turkey.

Mindy: Right. That's all you need to do.

Jason: So I want to talk about how you fundraise. You put on different events and parties. Share with us a little bit about some of those.

Krys: So in the past I've done multiple different fundraisers. We do toy drives at different locations. We have songwriter nights. We have a songwriter night that is going to be in memory of Glenn Douglas Tubb on November 8, I think, at the Commodore in Nashville. Jerry Foster, who I do another job for, I'm a publicist, and I do PR for Jerry Foster. But Jerry Foster and Dottie Tubb, Glenn's widow, are helping put it on with Debbie Champion at the Commodore. So that's going to be a fundraiser in Nashville, a big toy drive. That's a Sunday night. And then on November 12, there's a very big party that we're doing. It's called Cocktails With Santa. It's going to be at Capitol Theater in Lebanon. Tickets are already on sale, and we need sponsors and people to buy tickets. It's a red carpet thing, so think dressy. Think prom. No, think dressy cocktail. We're going to have some great food. We're going to have a jazz band called Jules and the Yules. And my co-writer, Olivia, is going to sing some Christmas songs as well. And we've done murder mysteries in the past, which we're going to do another murder mystery next year. Yeah, it's amazing. The Paper Mill in Mount Juliet lets us put our murder mystery on there. It's so great. We did a twenties one last year. We did one that was Dracula themed, and we did one that was a Santa Claus one, and it was a July one, and it was Santa on vacation. It was super cool. And we write them ourselves, because my son's a science fiction writer and he helps write them too, and other stuff.

Jason: Might have to attend that one.

Mindy: Excellent. Utilizing all of the talents.

Krys: We do, yeah. And it is not AI, because I tried it with AI and got yelled at. And also, it's terrible. It was absolutely terrible. So no.

Jason: Cocktails With Santa, so it's a red carpet event, dressy, and a jazz band. It sounds like a fantastic time, and you said the tickets are on sale now.

Krys: Yes. General admission tickets are $75, and VIP is more than that. You can look on the website and see.

Jason: And what is the website that people can go to?

Krys: givealittlechristmas.org.

Jason: Or...

Krys: And you just click on the banner. And then I have another campaign for fundraising that's a really big deal. It's ongoing until, well, forever. But the goal is to have 777 monthly donors donate $7 a month or more by 7/7/27.

Jason: That's really cool. [inaudible] 777 [inaudible].

Krys: Yeah, that's fun.

Mindy: Now, if other people are also wanting to help in a physical capacity, just being a volunteer, do they contact you through the website as well?

Krys: Yes. We also have a link on Volunteer Network, dot, is it dot org? Volunteer Network TN, I believe. They're Wilson County based. You go in there and you say, "Hey, I want to volunteer," or they can reach out to me in any capacity. I have Facebook and Instagram, and my email address is givealittlechristmas@gmail.com. But it's all on the website too. They can always fill out a form on the website and say, "I want to volunteer." There's a tab on there called Be an Elf, or Become an Elf. And we're always looking for volunteers.

Jason: Did we get the ears?

Krys: Yeah, yeah. I mean, we got the little hats, but I've got the actual latex elf ears. I bought them at the Renaissance Festival, and the spirit gum where you can stick them on. They're mine.

Mindy: There you go.

Jason: All right, so one thing you mentioned is that you're learning to say no a little more often. And after talking with you here for a little while, I can see why you need to learn how to say no to some opportunities. Is that hard?

Krys: Yes, it's extremely hard. There's so many things I want to do. I want to help everyone everywhere. I don't say no when it comes to the charity. I need to say no on other opportunities.

Mindy: And being poignant. If it's not poignant to the charity itself, you've got to learn to do that. That's just wise. Because you don't want to overrun yourself, because then you're not running at full capacity.

Krys: Yeah, I've got years of that. So that's why my magazine, Life Between the Lakes, is only going to print maybe once a year now. It used to be every two months, but I can't sell ads worth a flip. I don't like sales. Yeah, I don't like it. I don't like sales at all. I do need sponsors for the cocktail party.

Jason: So sponsors. We need sponsors.

Krys: Desperately need sponsors.

Jason: So what's coming up outside of these parties? Anything new that you're working on?

Krys: Well, the Christmas album, but that's not new. We've been working on that for a while. Not really. I don't need any new things. I've got too many old things I'm still trying to get done.

Mindy: Well, what about your next goals?

Krys: My next goal is getting the cocktail party funded. And my Santa's Workshop. I need volunteers to come help us organize the workshop, and I need building materials to help us do some of the things in there. And [inaudible].

Jason: So we need some contractors, or people that understand how to do that.

Mindy: Some handymen or handywomen.

Krys: I'm very involved in networking. I'm in BNI, and I'm also in a group called Gang, which is a great [inaudible] networking group. And I said before, I'm in Kiwanis Club, so we do a lot.

Jason: Do you sleep?

Krys: Well, not this past weekend in Vegas, but no.

Jason: Yeah. You brought back a souvenir from Vegas.

Krys: Yes, I did. And it's autographed by tons of awesome hit songwriters.

Jason: Yeah, show some of those.

Krys: Yeah. Earl Bud Lee, who wrote "Friends in Low Places." Let's see, I've got Liz Rose on here somewhere. She did some stuff with Taylor Swift. Bridget Tatum, I'm really good friends with her. I love her. She wrote "She's Country" and a bunch of other stuff. Paul Jenkins is a really close friend of mine. I've been friends with him since 2007. And he wrote "Stay" [inaudible] Kelly Clarkson, that "Don't You Wanna Stay" one. I don't know, there's a bunch. I've got a bunch.

Jason: Now, the rumor has it that this happened because you were dancing on a blackjack table. Is that...

Krys: Yeah, man. I lost all my money in Vegas. I was dancing on a blackjack table and just fell right off. Or, if you want to know the truth, I wasn't even drinking and I just tripped on the sidewalk. But it was still Vegas, and I did just zip line down Fremont Street. So that was fun.

Mindy: [inaudible]

Krys: So yeah, it was a fun weekend, and the songwriter festival was amazing. They do it every year around the same time in August. My friend Matt Warren, he's on here too, because he's the one that puts it on. And Anthony Smith, he wrote a bunch of stuff. "Tomorrow" for Chris Young and some other stuff. And I met Scott Hamilton this morning, and his signature's right there.

Jason: Scott, yeah, he's...

Krys: He's not a songwriter, but he was really awesome. No. No. So there's only famous names on here.

Mindy: [inaudible] My goodness. Well, I absolutely love what you do, and love your initiative of getting up and just taking this on, finding the right people to partner with you and to keep this going. So many people start these things and they may do one or two of them, but to do it consistently for 14 years. Isn't it 14 this year?

Krys: It's longer than that, isn't it?

Jason: That was on the website, so it may...

Krys: I haven't updated the website in years. It's more like close to 16. I think that's 2012. I don't know, do math. It's 2026 now.

Mindy: Yeah, so it's probably... Well, 16 years. So quite a few years. But the consistency, the consistency is amazing. And I mean, how many children have you been helping on average per year?

Krys: An average per year? Well, that varies. Last year it was 700. The year before that it was 900, I think. This year will probably be more, because with some other charities maybe not working as much this year. I think the Last Minute Choice Store is going to suspend operations for this year. I hope not. I hope I can help them keep that going somehow. But no, because it's a great organization. We work with them some too. But we've helped over 8,000 since we started.

Mindy: Eight thousand? Wow. Easily, I can imagine.

Jason: That's amazing.

Mindy: That is so great. We want you to continue to do this.

Krys: It's my baby. I just need to figure out the funding part of it. I definitely need donors, because it's a completely volunteer organization. Like I said before, the more money we raise, the less my husband spends on kids he doesn't know.

Mindy: You know, and having that key marketing person too, who can come along beside you and take that burden off, would be huge. So if anybody out there loves the marketing, or the calling for sales and sponsorships that you don't like doing, somebody really passionate about helping these kids could come along and help you guys out. I think that would be amazing. I know that's a piece that I wish somebody would take off for mine as well. Because it is, you know, it's a lot. It's a huge piece, getting all the information out there.

Krys: Well, now I can send out a press release, no problem. I'm a writer. I do have the PR company. I just want somebody else to do the sales, the fundraising. Fundraising is the hardest part.

Mindy: Do the sales and sponsorship.

Jason: Know your strengths and know your weaknesses.

Krys: Yes. I know my strengths, and I definitely have those weaknesses. And I've got to watch for the squirrels, you know. New shiny project.

Jason: Well, is there anything else? We've touched on a lot, but I know there's a tremendous amount more that you do. Is there anything else that you would like to share before we wrap up here?

Krys: Well, the one thing about 7 For Santa that I didn't mention is that if you are a 7 For Santa member, you get a custom ornament, and you also get upgraded to VIP status if you buy tickets to the cocktail party. And that's just $7 a month. It's a monthly donation.

Jason: And they can do that on the website as well.

Krys: Everything's on the website. It's really easy to do. And if you are in Mount Juliet, stop by Shiloh Music Center and drop off some toys or do anything that way. They're always here, and Huntington Learning Center as well. Those are all great places to leave things. And if you want to volunteer, you can see Santa's Workshop. I promise it's not as hyped as it [inaudible].

Jason: Man, you kind of got my curiosity up now, but...

Krys: Yeah, you're welcome to come see it.

Jason: Well, I don't know that you want me building on it.

Krys: You can come help clean up. Come sling a broom.

Jason: I can do that. Krys, you are absolutely amazing. I don't know how you keep up with everything. It's your heart. We could definitely tell that. You just seem to follow your heart. I wish more people did that.

Krys: I love it. It's the most rewarding thing in the entire universe. And the stories I could tell, my goodness.

Jason: Those are priceless.

Krys: So many good stories, heartwarming and heartbreaking. It is just an incredible journey.

Jason: And it's amazing that you started this 14-plus years ago and you're still going strong and still fully passionate.

Krys: It's my baby. I've made my family have to be a part of it. My mom, my sisters, everyone that I know helps. It's amazing.

Mindy: It's expected.

Jason: So that 7 For Santa, you can sign up and it would just be an auto deduct monthly, or...

Krys: It's on [inaudible].

Jason: A dollar a month. That's nothing.

Krys: Yeah. Artists For Community Transformation, International, who is our 501(c)(3) umbrella, they actually will send the receipts out and everything. All the money and all the ticket sales for the cocktail party and everything goes through them. So I don't have to keep up with that part.

Jason: That's huge. Yeah, all the administration work.

Krys: I like the fun. I like playing with the toys and making the smiles.

Jason: All right. Well, Krys, it's been such a delight having you on the show and sharing all you've been doing and all that you do for our community. And I can just imagine the kids, their faces that light up because of your selflessness. And let's not just stop at the kids. Let's think of the parents. I would know, you know, for my kid to be blessed by someone like you when I've been trying my best and, you know, life happens, to know that they are still enjoying Christmas really would make me feel just so much joy as a parent. Because yes, it's Christmas, and I know some people, well, you know, it should be about gifts, but you know, it's not about the gifts. It's about being remembered, about being loved, and so many different things.

Mindy: And being allowed to be a kid [inaudible].

Krys: Kids should definitely have Christmas. I mean, you can't, it would be heartbreaking if they believe in Santa and expect Santa to come and then Santa doesn't come. It would be heartbreaking. And as a mom, it would be heartbreaking, or for a dad, just as a parent or grandparent or whoever. We help foster kids too. A few years ago we had this guy who just got these boys out of foster care. They were in foster care, and he'd just gotten these boys placed with him just a few days before Christmas. The foster family that had the boys before that had promised them a game system, and they got moved, and they weren't going to get the game system, so they were disappointed. Well, my youngest son, I think he might have been 14 or 15 at the time, had a PS3 that he didn't use anymore, and all of his games, and he went through his stuff. And then we didn't have a controller for it, so we went to three or four different places to find PS3 controllers. We gave them his PS3 and a whole bunch of games, and new or not new, because they're PS3 controllers, so used PS3 controllers that we found in [inaudible]. We were able to make sure that those teenage boys who were in foster care still got the game system that they were hoping they would get for Christmas. And that was it.

Jason: That's so sweet, and it doesn't surprise me from your kids. Not at all.

Krys: Not at all. Especially not that one, man. My kids are great. My oldest is 35, and he and his wife and their kids help. My grandbabies are 12 and 10, almost 10. And then my 28-year-old and his wife help. And then we have the 19-year-old. He's the one that was five when I started. They've all just jumped in and helped. My mom has a candy store, and she makes candy, and my sister does cookies and cupcakes and things. My goodness. They always make everything for me. I've got her making me probably 200 or 300 cupcakes for my cocktail party. And my mom always makes all the candy for my cocktail parties and all the murder mysteries and everything. And she's in charge of [inaudible] anything. She just does it because she loves it.

Jason: Sounds like your family's...

Krys: Yeah, we're a great family. And my big sister and my mom, they're wonderful. And my stepdad's wonderful. But my big sister and my mom made George Jones's 80th birthday cake. It was a possum. It looked like a possum. So if you look it up, you'll see. Look up George Jones's 80th cake. That was theirs. But my big sister helps with everything too. She paints murals in my Santa's Workshop. And they're always just, my entire family, and Olivia's entire family, her in-laws, her husband, and here at Shiloh Music Center, they all get involved. So [inaudible] music, guitar, man, these people are the best. But they're just so giving. They have a heart for it. I mean, they set me up the mic right now, and set me up in one of their lesson rooms so that I would have a good sound system and good lighting.

Jason: That's awesome. That's so sweet of them.

Krys: It's amazing. I love being part of this community. The whole community helps, honestly. But our family is a godsend.

Jason: That's perfect. Well, Krys, thank you again. Thank you for your time. Thank you for sharing, and thank you for being Bubbles the Elf to so many kids. And I'm sure your grandkids like that as well. Can we call you Grandma Bubbles or anything?

Krys: No, they do not. I'm just Nana. I'm just Nana. And my neighbor, or not my neighbor, my renter, who's right beside Santa's Workshop, is my son's sister-in-law, and her husband and their daughter, Charlie. Charlie also calls me Nana. And Tony, the husband, every single time I have a volunteer that needs to come do something, or I need anything done whatsoever over at Santa's Workshop, he goes over and does it for me. Yesterday he went out and pulled all these tablecloths out for Kiwanis Club for a party that Kiwanis has coming up. And all I have to do is, I don't have to pay to do anything. I'm just surrounded by good people.

Mindy: That's amazing. And well, 14-plus Christmases is a lot of Christmases to keep believing. And a community that will show up is probably the most important aspect when you're doing a nonprofit and doing a huge event like this. So thank you for believing it out loud where the rest of us can hear about it. And I just want to thank you for being on here today.

Jason: As a way to live life.

Krys: Thank you, I appreciate it.

Jason: And thank you to all of our listeners for taking time out of your day to join us and learn more about this exceptional, wonderful little elf, Krys Midgett. We encourage you to go on their website and take a look at how you can help out. There's free ways, there's simple ways to give a little money every month. They're all good, and they're all needed, and they will appreciate it greatly. So thank you for listening, and until next time, always remember that you matter.

Mindy: Thank you for joining us on this episode of You Matter Nashville. We hope you found inspiration on this episode and are reminded that no matter where you are or what you do, you matter.

Jason: If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe, leave us a review, and even share it with your friends and family. Also, stay connected with us on social media and tune in next time for more incredible stories from the heart of our community.

Mindy: Until then, remember, your story matters, your voice matters, and most of all, you matter.