A local TikTok star makes Christmas wishes come true for Hancock County families

Hancock County TikTok star @missisippi_kween took her internet fame beyond her usual family-style recipe tutorials last Friday by posting an Amazon Christmas wish list that will benefit area school children, and it was bought out by her followers almost immediately—more than once.

Her name is Caroline Davis, and when she started the wish list her goal was to help support 10 local families in need and give children a Christmas that their parents otherwise couldn’t afford. Only days after her wish list went live on social media, Davis has received an influx of packages beyond what she ever imagined.

“About 2,500 packages have come in as of (Wednesday),” Davis said. The boxes filled multiple pallets at her local post office.

The gifts mean 147 students and their families will have Christmas this year. All 600 students at South Hancock Elementary School will also receieve a copy of the book “I’m Glad You Were Born.”

Davis first started thinking about making a Christmas wish list back in May. She brought the idea to South Hancock School Counselor Angela Skinner in October and asked to collaborate. She told Skinner that all she needed was a wish list and she would promote it on her TikTok account, which has 1.2 million followers.

After the list went live, her TikTok followers bought everything and started asking for more. Prompted by the positive community response, Davis and Skinner reloaded the list with a wider variety of items including wrapping paper, Christmas trees, hair products, deodorant, sanitary products, and gift cards for older kids who may not be interested in toys. Her followers bought everything on the list again.

“As soon as I put the list up and talked about it on my TikTok, (my followers) bought it out almost immediately. I started adding stuff because people were asking me to add more since it was empty. We ended up adding anything that a child could possibly need… because there’s a lot of kids that just don’t have access to that kind of stuff; hair products, brushes, and things like that.”

The sold-out lists even included specific requests from families in need.

“I released (the wish list) this last Friday, and then I took it down (Tuesday) night because it was done. We have so much right now, everything got bought … even the specific requests have been bought.”

The Christmas gift drive was originally intended for South Hancock Elementary School, but because of the surplus of gifts received the gift-giving will now extend to families from Hancock Middle School and Hancock High School.

TikTok star’s inspiration behind Christmas drive

Davis was motivated to start her own Christmas gift drive and help families in need by a time in her life when she was shown a similar kindness.

Davis moved to Hancock County in 2017 and was out of work for a month.

“It was right before Christmas, and it was not gonna happen,” she said. “I have four kids, and I had already kind of explained to them in the best way that I could that Christmas wasn’t going to be like they’re used to. It was only going to be one or two gifts.”

Her youngest child told his teachers what his mom had said, and they decided to give the family the Christmas that she was unable to provide for her children by herself that year.

“I was working in their school cafeteria, so they came down and talked to me and they provided Christmas for all four of my kids that year. I’ve thought about that a lot — at least once a week since it’s happened. I’ve always tried to repay it in small ways and this year I said since I have this platform, it would be pointless of me to not use it for good. And I said that in my video.”

Someone helped her in her hour of need, Davis said, and she wants to pay it forward so that no other family in her local school district has to worry about making Christmas happen for their children this year.

“‘Please help when you can’ is my message always. If you have the means to help somebody, help them.”

Can you still donate?

Though she hopes to do more Christmas gift drives in the future with Hancock County schools, Davis is not planning on putting up another wish list this year because of the high volume of gifts that have already been received.

However, Davis does have plans to collaborate with a fellow TikTok creator and help him gain traction with his own holiday wish list.

“There’s another TikTok creator here on the Coast. His name is Your Barefoot Neighbor, and he works very closely with Elijah’s closet, which is an organization that helps families reunite with their children that are in foster care. So he’s actually doing an Amazon wish list too. My plan now that this one is done is to help him promote his as well.”

Check out @yourbarefootneighbor on TikTok if you are interested in donating.

This story was originally published November 17, 2022 at 1:07 PM.