Three things top any Christmas wish list: a peaceful gathering of family and friends, a season of love and joy, and the delight and surprise of an unopened gift. But what’s Christmas when you’re alone? Who brings Christmas cheer when family is far away from home or gone? Saint Nicholas, of course. But this is no jolly old elf or canonized saint. This is Nicholas “Nick” Newell, a Realtor, a do-gooder, and a Christmas baby determined to help put the happy in Happy Holidays and the merry in Merry Christmas.

Nick met his mom on Christmas morning after a long and unexpected delivery — two weeks early. Pamela Newell was exhausted, but the glimpse she caught of her son filled her heart to bursting. His cheeks rosy. His eyes pinched shut.

The way he moved his arms as if to embrace the world. She couldn’t imagine anything more perfect.

A Realtor by day, Newell shifts his focus to the foundation in November and December when the market typically slows down. photograph by Matt Ray Photography

Then the nursing staff whisked him away, took him out of sight for the tests and measurements all newborns endure. The first minute crawled by; the second was slower. When the nurses returned, they came bearing a gift: her Nicholas swaddled in a blanket and peeking out from an oversize Christmas stocking.

Pamela had already decided on the name, so “when they brought in that giant red stocking, and that sweet baby, I knew, then, it was the perfect fit for him,” she says. “Especially because of what he’s gone on to do.”

What he’s gone on to do is start the Saint Nicholas Christmas Foundation, a nonprofit on a multi-state mission to spread joy to folks forgotten, overlooked, and orphaned in assisted living facilities. That and a little more.

“My birthday was always a thing. I felt I had to leverage it,” Nick says. “There’s nothing unique about me — I’m just trying to bring a little joy to people who might not have any. The real story is the foundation.”

• • •

You might have heard of the Saint Nicholas Christmas Foundation from friends, or maybe you recall a Today Show segment during the holidays about a young philanthropist from North Carolina. Regardless, the foundation spreads holiday cheer using a two-pronged approach: a Teddy Bear Drive and St. Nick’s Wishlist. Through the Teddy Bear Drive, Nick and his foundation provide stuffed animals to children’s hospitals and first responders “so they’ll have something on hand to ease a child’s fear or pain or worry,” he says. St. Nick’s Wishlist fulfills Christmas gift wish lists for residents of assisted living facilities, in particular those without family or income.

Nick unofficially started the foundation in 2014 as a friends-and-family-style fundraiser. It began with the Teddy Bear Drive and getting those stuffed toys delivered to places like Duke Children’s Hospital & Health Center, Atrium Health Levine Children’s Hospital, and St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. By 2018, the foundation formally incorporated as a nonprofit, and the scope had grown to include St. Nick’s Wishlist.

Newell’s mom, Pamela, knew immediately that Nicholas was the perfect name for her son. She now coordinates Wishlist outreach in Spokane, Washington, one of six states involved with the nonprofit. Photography courtesy of Nick Newell

Nick’s mother is one of a legion of volunteers helping fulfill those holiday wish lists by shopping, wrapping, and delivering gifts. She recalls a humble beginning. Nick worked in retail, and there was a promotion — buy a gift, get a stuffed bear or puppy. She says customers could choose to keep the stuffed animal or donate it to a charity. “That was the initial inspiration, as I understand it, and everything grew from there,” Pamela says.

With the introduction of St. Nick’s Wishlist, Nick and company expanded the foundation’s impact and touched a forgotten segment of society: folks in assisted living. “Some have no family, some are estranged, some are destitute, but every one of them deserves some Christmas cheer,” he says. The first year, St. Nick’s Wishlist reached 130 residents in Brunswick and New Hanover counties. It’s since grown exponentially, and the Saint Nicholas Christmas Foundation is active in six states and all along coastal North Carolina.

“People ask all the time, Why do you do it? And I have an easy answer: Why wouldn’t you? Why wouldn’t you help people if you have the time and resources? Every one of us can find a way to help someone,” Nick says. “Even if you think what you’re offering is small — a token gift, some volunteer hours, a few dollars — it can have a big impact on someone.”

The truth is, he does it because of his mother. “Mom would take us to facilities around Christmastime to deliver gifts and sing carols,” he recalls. “I didn’t know it at the time, but those visits were lessons in kindness that stuck with me.”

• • •

Nick walks through the room in his suit and tie, looking gift-wrapped as if he’s about to be placed under the tree. The only thing missing is a bow in his hair. It’s mid-December, and he’s been busy since the first of November when he started calling for donations, requesting funds to support the Wishlist, and seeking out candidates. It takes a while to get everything in place — 70 hours a week or more.

Nick publishes the Wishlist well before Black Friday, giving people time to plan, budget, and consider their impact.

There’s no time for a long winter’s nap or even a short one. His “sleigh,” a moving truck on loan from Tom Gale (a Realtor colleague), is parked outside, and Nick needs to load it with gifts and make a few more deliveries if he’s going to cross every name off the Wishlist by Christmas Eve.

In his downtown Wilmington office turned workshop, joy sparks among volunteers — his very own band of helpful elves — as they talk and laugh and do good, wrapping gift after gift, stuffing bag after bag. Everyone imbues a little love into each present, and emotions swell as Christmas draws closer.

Nick greets Patricia Rowe with a Christmas present and good cheer. His foundation focuses on giving gifts to people in assisted living, especially those with no income or family. photograph by Matt Ray Photography

Recycling bins overflow with the confetti of ribbon scraps and leftover paper. Tags, bags, and unwrapped gifts cover every table and countertop. Nick drifts through the clatter and chatter, sharing a joke, holding a crease awaiting Scotch tape, moving wrapped presents and finished gift bags out the door, and checking his watch. Not long now. The truck will soon be full, and he’ll head out on a delivery run. If he doesn’t do it soon, he’ll be out delivering gifts on his birthday, and someone’s name will be first on the naughty list.

St. Nick’s Wishlist operates through an Angel Tree-like process. Working with activity directors and caretakers at assisted living facilities, the foundation identifies Wishlist candidates and writes a literal wish list. “Some people worry they’re asking for too much, but there’s no such thing,” Nick says. “It’s a Christmas wish list, so wish.”

“A lot of people ask for the basics — socks, underwear, toiletries — but Nick really tries to go beyond that,” says Pamela, who coordinates Wishlist outreach in and around Spokane, Washington, one of the six states involved in the nonprofit.

“Some people worry they’re asking for too much, but there’s no such thing. It’s a Christmas wish list, so wish.”

“We always give items of comfort and warmth, items of need, but we want to add in some of the childlike wonder and joy of Christmas that so many of us have forgotten,” he says.

Last Christmas, someone asked for a Patsy Cline CD and a western wear shirt — the kind with pearl snaps and a long tail that stays tucked while you’re in the saddle — and Nick delivered.

“I remember one year — last year or the year before — it seemed like everyone wanted a Keurig,” Pamela says. “Three or four people from one facility asked for the machine and the pods. Well, we gave our Wishlisters coffee pods and gifted their facility a couple of Keurig machines and a stock of pods. It was a nice Christmas surprise for everyone there.”

• • •

In 2020, Nick received a Christmas surprise of his own in the form of a call from a Today Show producer. Having caught wind of the Saint Nicholas Christmas Foundation, they wanted to include him as part of the show’s “12 Days of Christmas” package highlighting charities and philanthropists.

“My segment would run on Christmas Eve and be the capstone to their package. I was thrilled. It was perfect,” Nick says. “The first phone call I made was to my mom. I knew she’d be as proud as she was excited.”

It’s important to Newell to keep the childlike wonder of the season alive by giving Wishlisters gifts they want in addition to things they need. photograph by Matt Ray Photography

He thought his segment would run maybe 30 seconds, maybe one or two minutes, but Hoda Kotb, Jenna Bush Hager, and the producers had other plans. Unbeknownst to Nick, they’d spoken with sponsors and with Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage executives, including Nick’s former boss and mentor, Tim Milam, and set up a surprise.

“The morning we were shooting my segment over a Zoom call, I was frantic,” Nick admits. His house, in the middle of a remodel, was not fit for TV, so he asked a colleague about a model home that was decorated for the holidays a few streets away. With permission to film his segment there, he got dressed, wrangled his two dogs into the car, grabbed his computer, and headed to the new shoot location.

But there was a problem. His phone rang. It was an on-site producer outside his house, wondering where he was. With only a few minutes to air, the pressure was mounting. Nick turned around and returned home. Settling in for his segment, he turned on the charm. His eyes twinkled. His wide smile grew somehow wider. He was dazzling.

“The national spotlight was something of a turning point for the Saint Nicholas Christmas Foundation.”

And the segment kept going. One minute. Two. Three minutes. Nick wondered when the hosts would, politely but firmly, wish him a happy holiday and wrap. But they didn’t. Four minutes turned into five, then Hoda and Jenna asked him to go outside.

There, in his driveway and on his lawn: a camera crew and a gaggle of sign-waving supporters. They had a birthday cake and balloons, a $1,000 gift card to help with his new home, and a $10,000 donation from Kohl’s.

“The national spotlight was something of a turning point for the Saint Nicholas Christmas Foundation,” he says. “I don’t think we could’ve grown the way we did without it.”

• • •

Nick didn’t arrive in North Carolina with plans for a foundation. He came, like so many of us, for work. After growing up in a small town in Washington — “there were 10 other Nicks in my high school but no other Christmas babies” — and attending college in nearby Spokane, he left the Pacific Northwest and landed in Fayetteville. He worked in retail management, a job that had him relocate to a few cities across the state, but his heart was drawn to the coast.

“I found Wrightsville Beach on a mini vacation,” he says. “The turquoise water, the waves, the gorgeous sand — it reminded me of Honolulu. I was contemplating a move and career change, and I thought, How cool to live in a place that reminds me of Hawaii.”

“My work provides me with a salary that allows me to spend significant time on foundation work.”

He acquired his real estate license and bought a home in Leland, near enough to Wrightsville’s beaches and Wilmington’s buzz. He was successful, learning the ropes at Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage and then starting his own real estate brokerage.

“My work provides me with a salary that allows me to spend significant time on foundation work,” Nick says. “The holidays — really, November and December — are typically slow in real estate, so I shift my priorities when November arrives.”

Now, he lives a life divided into two worlds — between house, the physical four-walls-and-a-roof sort as a Realtor, and home, the place of safety, comfort, belonging, which he delivers through the foundation.

• • •

“Christmas is all about kids, at least culture and charities tell us so,” Nick says. “We can Adopt an Angel, do Toys for Tots, donate to a hundred children’s charities. But what about those forgotten adults? They have human, emotional needs, so why not bring them some Christmas joy?”

St. Nick’s Wishlist provides that joy, that escape, that human connection.

“One of my favorite moments is learning that a family has adopted someone from the Wishlist,” he says. “It’s a life lesson for the kids, just like it was for me. Many people shop as if they’re buying for their own family member, so instead of one western wear shirt with pearl snaps, they gift two, and there’s almost always something extra.”

“He gives up his holiday season, his birthday, to give to others. That’s the spirit of Christmas.”

Nick says it’s a relief on Christmas Eve when the volunteers finally finish, and that there’s also a spiritual reward in seeing the fruits of all that labor and knowing he was part of it. “I like to imagine there’s a little Saint Nick in all of us, and I certainly see it in our volunteers and supporters.”

“I love that he does this,” Pamela says, her bubbly voice growing thick with emotion. “So selfless, so big-hearted. He gives up his holiday season, his birthday, to give to others. That’s kindness. That’s the true spirit of Christmas.”