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Downtown Jacksonville distillery donates extra Christmas trees to families

A company held its Christmas party at Manifest Distillery and let them keep about 30 Christmas trees used as decorations. The distillery is now donating them.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Employees at the Manifest Distillery are hoping to spread some Christmas cheer by donating Christmas trees to families that can't afford one. 

A company held its Christmas party at the distillery Friday night, complete with more than two dozen trees as decorations.

“At the end of the night, they were saying, 'Hey we don’t need them. Do you have a use for them?'" the distillery's general manager James Webb said.

"I said, 'I don’t need two to three dozen Christmas trees, but I can reach out to some people who work in the community and we can try to get them to some people who would love to get a Christmas tree but haven’t been able to get one," Webb said.

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Webb posted to Facebook and reached out to friends who work for nonprofits, asking if anyone knew families who may not be able to afford a tree and needed one.

Hey all, kinda off topic, but very much in the community spirit, we had a private party last night here at Manifest, and at the end of the night, we ended up with a couple dozen or so Christmas...

“Christmas, at least in my upbringing, is about opening presents from under the tree and if you don’t have the tree, you’ve lost a little bit of that experience," he said.

"So, to see the joy on someone that they didn’t expect this is just really gratifying," Webb said.

The response, he said, has been overwhelming, just from people who said they could use a tree, but also from people who wanted to help donate the trees.

“We’ve been kind of wanting to do something around the city to help and just haven’t, and we just hadn’t found something yet, so this was there and we rearranged some plans," one couple said who saw the post on Facebook.

That couple and others stopped by Manifest Distillery  Saturday to pick up a few trees to donate to families. Webb also brought some trees in his truck to families.

“[The response] shows that we’re a community and we care about everyone in the community and if there’s a need people will rise to serve that need," Webb said.

“It’s the season of giving as well, so it makes you feel good that people say, 'Hey I don’t know you,' or 'I just know you on Facebook, but I’ll come help you and help someone else as well,'" Webb said.

Webb told First Coast News all of the trees have been donated to families in need.

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