Even Santa himself has a stop in Oyster Bay this year, as the Long Island town gears up to run its biggest toy drive ever. Residents are planning to drop more than 50,000 gifts to kids in need, building on a steady streak of generosity that started back in 2015.
Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino shared the numbers with The Post: “The people here are so generous. We did 19,000 toys in 2020, then 25,000 the next year, then 34,000, then 38,000, and last year was 42,000.”
This year the goal: hit that 50,000‑gift mark for the first time. “This year, Santa will need a bigger sleigh. We want to hit that 50,000 number for the first time,” he added.
The big event takes place on December 6 at Burns Park in Massapequa. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. kids can play, and later they’ll get to meet Santa and Mrs. Claus. The drive’s history is rooted in a pandemic‑born innovation. When COVID made indoor collection centers impossible, the town turned the park into a drive‑through toy depot. Nearly five‑times the usual amount of gifts flowed in, and word spread fast.
“ If not for the pandemic, we never would have had this idea, and so many kids wouldn’t have had smiles on Christmas morning,” Saladino said. The idea quickly became a holiday tradition: high‑school teams in uniform bring in present piles, parents rally friends, and even local collectors turn their garages into impromptu donation sites.
Andrew Rothstein, the town’s Director of Operations, runs the drive. “There was one man in three bowling leagues who got almost all of his peers to donate,” he explained. “Each year, he fills his red pickup truck with more toys than the season prior.” Moto‑club members and car‑collectors also chime in, with some dropping off a handful of bicycles just for the joy of giving. “Another person drops off five or six bicycles on their own just because,” Rothstein added.
For those hoping to help, the key is to bring unwrapped gifts. Among the most welcome items are Nerf guns, dolls, Lego sets, stuffed animals, and board games. “It’s amazing how much people want to give,” Rothstein noted.
Besides the gift‑sharpening crowds, hundreds of toddlers—many of whom never met Santa before—stand in line, hand in hand, to trade their Christmas letters with the jolly old man himself. “For a lot of kids, this has been the first time they ever met Santa, actually,” Rothstein remarked. “And so many children come and want to donate bought toys on behalf of their families. You really see what the holidays are all about here.”
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