Christmastime is here at the Christian Service Center (CSC) with next week being the final week for interviews required for registration to the Christmas Cheer program.

CSC volunteer Mary Lee Harms said residents have been doing their part to ensure under-served children in Gulf Shores, Orange Beach and Fort Morgan have the "best Christmas possible."

Near the end of November, almost half of the center's storage unit was filled with toys and clothes being collected for their transfer to Toyland, a storage warehouse provided to CSC by Island Church.

CSC volunteer and Toyland chair Betty Oliver said preparation for toy distribution is now underway at Toyland. She said she was appreciative of Island Church and the over 50 volunteers to date who helped with Christmas Cheer.

Oliver said the toy program would not be possible without Harms and her team creating over 1,500 angel-shaped paper ornaments with gift requests for participating families for distribution to local churches, businesses, schools, restaurants and civic organizations.

For those wanting to donate toys for the program, there are still over 45 locations to pick up angels. Some locations have gone through three Christmas trees filled with angels, Harms said.

"And a number of locations are anxiously waiting another delivery," she said. "When parents register, their angels are generally distributed with 24 hours to different locations. We're here for our kids!"

Both Harms and Oliver said the last interviews for parents wanting to register their children for Christmas Cheer will be Dec. 9-11 from 1 to 3 p.m. at the CSC, located at 317 Dolphin Ave.

Oliver said, as of Dec. 2, 182 families have registered for Christmas Cheer. She expects the program to have over 200 families registered by next week.

As previously reported by GCM, 134 families with a total of 402 children were registered for the program by Nov. 13. A press release sent out last month said last year a total of 238 families with 661 children were served through the program.