If there’s a group that can compete with the Christmastime goodwill of Santa Claus, it’s the Goodfellows of DeKalb and Sycamore – a volunteer group that distributed thousands of gifts to children on Christmas Eve.

The Goodfellows of DeKalb County, who are a semi-anonymous group of hundreds of people, including families with children, distributed gifts of clothing to almost 1,500 area children on Wednesday.

The group’s president, Sandy Lancaster, described 2025 as “a record year” for need in DeKalb County. Lancaster, a DeKalb High School graduate and 38-year resident of Sycamore, said the community responded to that need by helping the Goodfellows raise $90,000 in 2025.

“We’ve done a good job with raising money,” Lancaster said. “Even though we had more kids this year, we were able to spend more per child.”

Goodfellow Kelli Meserole, of DeKalb, said they spent $88,000 on gifts for children this year. She spoke to the hundreds of volunteers who came out at 8 a.m. on Wednesday morning to Blumen Gardens, 403 Edward St., Sycamore, so that they could distribute the group’s hundreds of gift bags.

Among those who distributed gifts was Katherine Katz, 39, of Sycamore. She’s been helping the Goodfellows since she was a child.

“It’s now part of our family tradition, and my kids are so excited about it every year,” Katz said. “My seven-year-old this year was like ‘It’s the best part of Christmas!’”

It’s now part of our family tradition, and my kids are so excited about it every year

—  Katherine Katz

Katz, a teacher at Sycamore Middle School, said seeing her children have a desire to give during the holiday season brings her joy. She also said she’s proud of what the community accomplishes through the Goodfellows.

“I live, teach, I have my family in the community, it makes me so proud to see all these people who come together, whether they know each other or not,” Katz said. “It can be intimidating, but once people do it, they’re hooked, and they realize it’s the best way to start Christmas Eve into the holidays.”

Kane County resident Brick VanDerSnick came to the Goodfellows of DeKalb and Sycamore gift distribution on Christmas Eve dressed as Santa Claus. If he were the real Claus, however, he would have been in east Asia at the time, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command Santa Tracker.

Lancaster, who has volunteered with the Goodfellows for close to 40 years, said the group has made efforts in recent years to spend money they raise for area children within the DeKalb County economy. She said they have spent $800,000 in DeKalb County since 2009.

“Our big thing is we want to keep everything local, so we shop local, we wrap local, we distribute local,” Lancaster said. “This year, we started shopping at [Blaine’s] Farm and Fleet. We had one night there, and then the rest of the nights were at Target. We had six shopping nights at Target.”

About 200 volunteers helped the Goodfellows on their seven nights of shopping, and about 250 helped wrap the gifts. Lancaster said, in total, about 1,000 volunteer hours went into preparing the gifts for distribution by the Goodfellows on Christmas Eve.

To receive gifts from the Goodfellows, parents fill out an application that includes their children’s top three clothing needs. Then the Goodfellows purchase and gift clothing to will fill those needs. The organization works with area schools and other groups to coordinate with parents.

“We believe in providing the basic necessities for the children,” Lancaster said.

Meserole, who Lancaster said could be at the helm of the group’s leadership team in 2026, got involved with the Goodfellows of DeKalb and Sycamore through friends about a decade ago. She has made the Goodfellows a part of her young family’s Christmas traditions partly because of the support her family received as a child.

“Taking care of the kids in our community is something that’s really important to me,” Meserole said. “As a kid, we needed help occasionally, so I want to be able to give back through organizations who can do the same things. I’m really big on taking care of our neighbors and looking out for one another.”

While hundreds of people are responsible for the gifts DeKalb County children receive from the Goodfellows, Katz thanked the Goodfellows team that worked all year to make the Christmas Eve gift deliveries possible.

“They work from the minute Christmas is over until the next Christmas for our families here,” Katz said. “So many kids don’t even know that this is what’s behind the scenes, but that’s the true magic of it. Helping these families – it’s just amazing, I have chills just talking about it.”