The spirit of generosity shined at Welland Museum during its first Gifting Tree event.

Three Christmas trees, donated by the Welland Rona store, were decorated and will be gifted to families in need in conjunction with The Hope Centre.

"We usually do a general open house with some vendors and markets, but this year we wanted to give back to the community," said assistant curator Tami Nail.

She said the museum relies on support from the community in order to run - and this year it received a lot of support and wanted to pay it forward to others in need.

Non-perishable food donations and grocery gift cards were collected as admission to Saturday's event. Visitors were able to donate a minimal fee to create special Christmas ornaments to be placed on the trees.

Santa stopped by for some story telling and there was free cookies and hot chocolate.

"One hundred per cent of the proceeds will be going back to The Hope Centre this year for Christmas," said Nail.