On the busiest shopping day of the year on December 18, Yahoo! went to shopping malls in Washington, D.C. and Portland, Oregon to spread holiday cheer by paying for family photos with Santa. This is part of Yahoo!’s How Good Grows program, an effort to create a ripple of generosity with one small act of kindness.

Over the course of a few hours, the Yahoo! Kindness team surprised hundreds of families waiting in line to take photos with Santa.  This small gesture brought joy, gratitude and even some tears to the families we touched. Check out some of our favorite reactions -

“You just made my husband’s day. He just lost his job so this holiday has been hard for us and we debated whether or not to bring our kids here today” -Mother of 3 said through tears

“Wow, you just really inspired me. I’m going to take the money I was planning to spend on the Santa photo and donate it to a local shelter.” -Mother of 2

One grandmother (there with her daughter and two granddaughters) told us that she is going to make Christmas cookies for her neighbors - that she has been on the fence about doing it this year, but that "this is a sign that I need to do this!"

In the days leading up to the holidays, the Yahoo! Kindness team will continue to do good deeds, and encourage others to do the same.  On Dec. 22^nd Yahoo! will pay travelers’ luggage fees at the Chicago O’Hare airport in designated terminals, and on Dec. 23^rd the team will pay for customers’ groceries at select stores in Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Got a fun idea up your sleeve to spread kindness this holiday season? Join Yahoo! in spreading generosity this holiday season.

• Do something nice for someone! From buying someone’s groceries, to donating time at your local food bank, to handing out umbrellas on a rainy day.  It’s up to you!
• Inspire others. Update your status on Yahoo! with what you’ve done at http://kindness.yahoo.com.  Share your update on other social networks – the more people who click on your update or do their own kind acts, the bigger your ripple of kindness will be.  You will be able to watch the ripple you create at kindness.yahoo.com.

For more information on the How Good Grows campaign, check out kindness.yahoo.com.

-Connie Chan, Manager, Yahoo! for Good