Meet our 2026 Holiday Hero Families
We are so excited to share our 2026 Holiday Hero Families with you! Please take the time to read each story and show them some love this season! Want to make an even bigger IMPACT? Visit our Amazon Wish List and make this season magical with us!
🎄✨ MEET OUR NEXT 2026 HOLIDAY HERO FAMILY! ✨🎄
(Sparing some of the details for privacy)
Imagine being seven months pregnant, raising two little boys, preparing to welcome your first baby girl… and suddenly having to rebuild your entire life.❤️
That’s where this mama finds herself this Christmas.
After an incredibly difficult year, she made the decision to choose stability for her children.
And that decision meant starting over.
New housing. New routines. Very limited resources. A high risk pregnancy. Two little boys trying to understand a whole lot of change, and a newborn arriving just in time for Christmas. ❤️
But those little boys still believe in Christmas magic. 🎅🏻✨
And Mom desperately wants to protect that little piece of childhood for them.
Not a perfect Christmas.
Not an extravagant Christmas.
Just a happy one.
One where her boys get to be little.Where their baby sister's first Christmas feels special.And where, after such a hard year, this family gets to make a memory filled with joy instead of worry. ❤️
This Christmas isn't just about presents for this family.
It's about a new beginning. 🎄
And we are SO honored to make their first Christmas in this new chapter a little more magical.
Welcome to our 2026 Holiday Heroes family. ❤️✨
🎄✨ MEET OUR FIRST 2026 HOLIDAY HERO FAMILY! ✨🎄
This family may look a little familiar. ❤️
We’ve had the honor of celebrating this incredible family through Hardship Heroes before, and this year, we get to bring a little Christmas magic their way. 🎅🏻
Kerry is raising her two boys, Carter & Jackson, on her own while navigating more than any one family should have to carry.
All three face their own medical challenges. Carter lives with one kidney, high blood pressure and a heart condition. Jackson battles autoimmune conditions that affect both his skin and muscles. And Mom is managing her own chronic illness while working, keeping up with endless appointments and doing everything she can to keep their little family afloat.
Then, in January, they experienced another devastating blow when they unexpectedly lost Kerry’s sister, someone who was supposed to move in and become another piece of their support system. 💔
Through medical appointments, grief, financial struggles and some really hard days, these three continue to show up for each other as a team.
Kerry said something in her application that stuck with us:
She just wants her boys to have the chance to be kids. 🥹
And this Christmas, we get to help make that happen.
Welcome back to the Hardship Heroes family, Carter, Jackson & Kerry!
This time as one of our 2026 Holiday Hero families! 🎄❤️✨
🎄✨ MEET OUR NEXT 2026 HOLIDAY HERO FAMILY! ✨🎄
For this family, the holidays hold both magic and unimaginable heartbreak. ❤️
In December 2021, they welcomed their first baby, Marleigh, seven weeks early due to complications from a genetic disorder.
She spent her first Christmas in the NICU — and every day, she was getting stronger. Then on New Year's Eve, Marleigh developed a fever and everything changed.
On January 2nd, her parents received the call no parent should ever receive: their baby girl wasn't breathing and wasn't responding to CPR.
At just 15 days old, Marleigh passed away. 💔
Christmas has never been quite the same.
A year later, their dog Lucy came into their lives — coincidentally born just one day before Marleigh's birthday. Her family says Lucy helped pull them out of some of their darkest days and gave them a reason to smile again.
Then this summer, Lucy was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer, and they had to say goodbye to her too. 💔
Today, their son Liam is the light of their world, and they're preparing to welcome another baby boy — all while Mom works long days at 36 weeks pregnant and their family tries to recover from an incredibly difficult year.
In her application, Mom wrote:
“I just want my kids to have a Christmas miracle.” 🥹
Well, Liam…
🎅🏻 We think Christmas magic is headed your way. ✨
Welcome to our 2026 Holiday Heroes family. 🎄❤️
And sweet Marleigh — you'll be part of this Christmas too. ❤️
🎄✨ MEET OUR NEXT 2026 HOLIDAY HERO FAMILY! ✨🎄
Meet Presley. 💕
Presley is living with an incredibly rare genetic disorder called Trichothiodystrophy, or TTD — a condition so rare that most of us have probably never even heard its name.
TTD can affect multiple systems throughout the body, and in more severe cases, even common infections can become dangerous and life-threatening.
For Presley, that means chronic illness, hospital stays and spending a whole lot of time away from other people and germs to protect her health.
She and her brother are even homeschooled because traditional school can simply be too much for her little body.
But her illness certainly hasn't taken away her personality. ❤️
Her nominator describes Presley as a beautiful little girl with ALL the spunk and sass. ✨
And behind that spunky little girl is a family living with an incredibly scary reality:
When Presley gets sick and her body “crashes,” they don't always know how the story will end.
There have been hospital stays so serious that her family has been told to prepare for the possibility that she may not recover. 💔
And THAT is exactly why this Christmas, we want Presley and her family thinking about something completely different.
🎅🏻 Santa.🎁 Presents.✨ Magic.❤️ And making memories together.
Welcome, Presley & family, to our 2026 Holiday Heroes family! 🎄✨
🎄✨ MEET OUR NEXT 2026 HOLIDAY HERO FAMILY! ✨🎄
In March 2025, this mama went in for what was supposed to be a hysterectomy.
Instead, a surgical complication left her fighting for her life.
She developed sepsis twice, underwent emergency surgery, needed an ileostomy and faced multiple major surgeries that would completely change life for her family.
Thankfully, Tyler, Ryan & Lyndsey didn't lose their mom. ❤️
But Mom says the hardest part has been knowing that, in many ways, they haven't had 100% of her since.
Surgeries. Pain. Recovery. Appointments. Physical limitations.
Their childhood suddenly became filled with things kids shouldn't have to worry about — including the fear that they could lose their mom. 💔
And their journey isn't over. Mom is still dealing with painful complications and has another major surgery ahead.
When we asked why Holiday Heroes would mean so much, she didn't talk about what she deserves.
She talked about her kids. 🥹
“I want them to have a chance to forget about all of it for a little while — to laugh, be excited, enjoy the holidays and simply be kids.”
Tyler, Ryan & Lyndsey...
🎅🏻 THIS Christmas memory gets to be about YOU.
No hospitals.No surgeries.No recovery.
Just being kids and making some Christmas magic with your family. 🎄❤️
Welcome to our 2026 Holiday Heroes family! ✨
🎄✨ MEET OUR NEXT 2026 HOLIDAY HERO FAMILY! ✨🎄
This family has had their whole world shift over the last few years. ❤️
Dad was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood. And while we are SO thankful to say he is currently in remission, his health struggles didn't end when the cancer did.
He now deals with blood clots and lung issues that have left him unable to work.
Before getting sick, Dad worked and helped support his family. Now Mom is the only one able to work — and she shared that one of the hardest parts is watching her husband feel like it's somehow his fault that he can't help the way he used to. 💔
And of course, their boys have been along for ALL of it.
They've watched their dad get sick. They've watched their parents struggle. And they've had to see way more worry than kids should.
Mom told Dad that Christmas was going to have to be small this year.
And when we read that, we thought...
Maybe it doesn't have to be. ❤️
Because after everything this family has been through, these boys deserve a little happiness, Mom deserves a little less worry, and Dad deserves to see his family smiling without feeling like he needed to make it happen.
So Mom & Dad... let us take this one. 🎅🏻❤️
We're bringing the Christmas magic this year.
Welcome to our 2026 Holiday Heroes family! 🎄✨
🎄✨ MEET OUR NEXT 2026 HOLIDAY HERO FAMILY! ✨🎄
Sometimes hardship isn't just ONE big thing.
Sometimes it's 20 things happening at the exact same time and somehow you're still expected to keep life moving. ❤️
That's where this mama has found herself this year.
She's raising her kids while going to nursing school and working toward a better future for her family.
She's also been supporting her own mom through open-heart surgery and an ICU stay in Philadelphia, something that turned their entire family's world upside down.
And back at home, she's advocating HARD for her son, who is on the autism spectrum and has recently been struggling more.
IEP meetings. School needs. Finding services. Appointments. Finances. Parenting. Schoolwork. Her own mental health.
And somehow... Mom is still Mom through ALL of it.
Still trying to hold everyone together. Still trying to figure out what everyone needs. Still wanting her kids to have a magical Christmas even when she's running on EMPTY. ❤️
She told us she just wants a moment where they can all be together, feel happy and remember that even during hard seasons, there can still be something beautiful to hold onto.
🥹 Yeah... that one got us.
So this Christmas, we're giving this mama one less thing to figure out.
We've got the magic. 🎅🏻✨
You just bring those kiddos and make some really happy memories together. ❤️
Welcome to our 2026 Holiday Heroes family! 🎄
🎄✨ MEET OUR NEXT 2026 HOLIDAY HERO FAMILY! ✨🎄
Sometimes you're doing everything you're supposed to do and life STILL gets really hard. ❤️
This mama has been raising her son on her own since the day he was born.
She had her own place. She had a job she'd been at for six years. She was doing it.
Then her own health struggles started affecting her ability to work, and little by little, the stability she had worked so hard for began to change.
She eventually had to give up her home and move back in with her mom. Since then, she's bounced between jobs trying to find something that works with the reality of being a single mom, school schedules, childcare and ALL the things that don't magically disappear just because you have to work.
Today she's working for minimal pay and sometimes there simply isn't enough left after the bills.
Christmas extras?
They're just not in the budget.
And you know what?
That's exactly what Holiday Heroes is here for. ❤️
Because her little boy doesn't need to understand paychecks, bills or how much Mom is stretching every dollar.
He just needs to be a kid on Christmas. 🎅🏻🎁
Mama, you've been figuring it out on your own for a long time.
Let us figure out a little of the Christmas magic this year. ❤️✨
Welcome to our 2026 Holiday Heroes family! 🎄
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