People were clearly brimming with Christmas spirit as they opened their hearts and wallets while visiting Santa in downtown Chilliwack during the holiday season.

Santa's Workshop in District 1881, where people could visit and get photos taken with the man in red, brought in $40,000 in donations, more than twice the amount as last year. And all of that cash will help feed local families in need.

Algra Bros., who redeveloped the neighbourhood, donated the money to two food-security programs on Thursday, Jan. 16: Starfish Pack program, and The Full Cupboard.

Starfish provides two days' worth of meals and snacks to kids within the Chilliwack School District every weekend throughout the school year. The Full Cupboard is a program through Envision Financial where money and food are donated to local food banks.

The money will be split evenly between the two charities.

鈥淲e鈥檙e elated. I wasn鈥檛 expecting that much. This will go a long way,鈥� said Michelle Dennill with the Starfish program. 鈥淲e鈥檙e feeding 275 children a week and this makes a huge impact on our ability to buy food and continue to support the children in our school district.鈥�

The by-donation event saw 8,000 people pay a visit to Mr. Claus, and they figured about 80 per cent of them were from out of town.

The incentive was to get the locals out during the weekdays where there was no minimum donation. Over the weekends, where they mostly saw visitors, there was a suggested minimum donation of $40.

鈥淚t's a reality that if you just have a donation, generally you're going to collect less. If you set a bar somewhere (with a minimum donation) you're going to earn more dollars for the charity,鈥� said Phil Algra.

Santa's Workshop was open a week earlier this past Christmas season compared to last year, plus the hours and days were increased. Because of this, and the minimum donation, it resulted in a whopping total of $40,008.71.

During the first year, $8,000 was raised, and last year they brought in $16,800.

Dennill said the money will help feed even more kids and families.

鈥淲e know that the need is growing so we鈥檙e actively looking for more funding 鈥� this is huge. The timing couldn鈥檛 be better. This will allow us to enrol more children into the program.鈥�

Algra gave a 鈥渂ig thank you鈥� to the sponsors for supporting the campaign and added that 鈥渋t's grown tremendously and the feedback has been really good.鈥�

Jessie Ramsay from Baker Newby, which sponsored the initiative alongside Bannister Auto Group, said they were 鈥減roud and humbled鈥� to support Santa's Workshop.

If it weren鈥檛 for the Algra Bros. 鈥渢his vision would have never been a reality. It鈥檚 incredible to see how much it鈥檚 gone up year over year.鈥�