It takes a lot to make Jay Calhoun cry, but he couldn’t hold back tears at the Christmas miracle at his St. Paul doorstep this week.

When he opened his door, he was delighted to see about 50 strangers singing Christmas carols. But he didn’t notice at first that each one was holding a gift for Calhoun and his family.

He’s a single dad of four children, one of whom has cancer.

One by one, people brought up the gifts. Then, LeeAnn Larson, the woman who organized the effort, told Calhoun: “Another gift that we would all like to present you is January’s rent is paid for.”

“Oh, wow,” Calhoun said.

Larson calls what she does “An East Side Christmas”; people who know her call her a woman with a heart of gold.

Larson usually matches families in need with people who want to help. Then she gets out of their way — they set up face-to-face meetings on their own to provide gifts. It’s not the coordinated work of a nonprofit organization, but Larson’s scrappy effort has had big results.

After starting out five years ago with community members “adopting” three families, 72 were adopted this year.

When Larson heard Calhoun’s story recently, she put out a call for extra help for his family. She organized it all on a Facebook page that she named “Big Magical Christmas.”

Gidget Bailey, owner of Tin Cup’s bar and restaurant on Rice Street, joined the carolers at Calhoun’s home on Wednesday.

“The community support for this family made my Christmas,” Bailey said Friday. “There are still beautiful people in this world, and it’s what Christmas is really all about.”

‘AN EAST SIDE CHRISTMAS’

Larson never dreamed the Christmas donation effort would get so big.

It started out with a friend who was in need of help for Christmas because she missed the Toys for Tots deadline. Larson remembered she had seen a Facebook post of someone wanting to be of assistance to others and she connected them.

“It grew from there,” she said.

Through word of mouth and Facebook, people came to know that Larson was someone to whom they could refer families in need. They reach Larson through Facebook messenger and tell her their stories.

Larson has a Facebook page she calls “An East Side Christmas” for people who want to adopt families or donate items.

She writes about the families in need without using their names; the posts are visible only to people Larson adds as members of the page. The effort started out on the East Side, where Larson lives, but it’s expanded.

“A lot of them have gone out to dinner and exchanged gifts,” Larson said. “This year, we’ve had quite a few where they met up before Thanksgiving and provided meals for Thanksgiving, Christmas and gifts.”

Larson planned the gift-giving for the Calhoun family on Wednesday, her 42nd birthday. Instead of going out with friends, she wanted to give back to the community. She’s a single mother who said she’s also gone through tough times in her life and has been blessed by people’s generosity.

Now, Larson is known for being a huge giver and supporter, Bailey said.

“She works countless hours organizing this East Side Christmas, which she started all on her own without any help from any huge corporation or nonprofits organization backing her,” she said.

A FAMILY NEW TO ST. PAUL

Larson told Calhoun that an anonymous person had adopted his family and she’d be dropping off gifts, but he had no idea of the effort underway.

Last week, Larson stopped by the Calhouns’ home in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood to drop off a Christmas tree donated to them. On Wednesday, Larson came bearing a handful of gifts.

But the big surprise was outside, where people were gathered with all the gifts for Calhoun and his children, who are 14 to 19 years old.

The Calhoun family is new to St. Paul. They moved in October after Calhoun said they lost their Brooklyn Park home to foreclosure.

Calhoun’s 15-year-old daughter, Ashley, has had acute lymphocytic leukemia for the past eight years, and he has been unable to work as he cares for her, he said.

“It’s a full-time job here,” he said.

On Wednesday, Calhoun was shocked to see all the people, including some St. Paul police officers, who’d come to support his family.

“Like my daughter says, I’m a hard man to get to cry, but I had the tears rolling,” he said. There were gifts, plus gift cards donated from East Side Pizzeria, Sumo Egg Rolls and Dedicated-One Mobile Fruit Truck.

People had also donated enough money to cover Calhoun’s $1,300 rent for January, with $500 of it coming from Tin Cup’s. Calhoun said that should allow him to get caught up on some bills, plus Ashley is getting to a point in her treatment where he can at least look for a part-time job. He used to be a machinist, but he said he’ll take any job that he can walk to or get to via public transportation.

Ashley is due to be finished with chemotherapy treatments in a month and a half and then will be on a chemo-maintenance schedule. She underwent a bone marrow transplant in 2012, donated by her younger sister.

Bailey, the Tin Cup’s owner, is a cancer survivor and had a chance to talk to Ashley when she met her Wednesday.

“I just told her to keep fighting,” Bailey said.

HOW TO HELP

LeeAnn Larson’s group isn’t a nonprofit, so she doesn’t accept cash donations, but people who want to donate toys, clothes or otherwise get involved can message her through her Facebook page.

People can donate to the Calhoun family through a website, hopeforashley.com, that was set up when they were trying to keep their previous home from going into foreclosure.