Homewares and lifestyle online department store OO.com.au has joined forces with The Living Room and invited 100 of the show’s biggest fans and families who had experienced hardship in 2014, to be part of the studio audience for a Christmas special.

Guests were invited to give OO.com.au’s Santa their wish list for the year; a modern-day Santa who was connected via earpiece to the team at OO.com.au, who spent the next three hours furiously selecting and packing gifts at their Sydney warehouse to match the requests.

Just one example of OO.com.au’s generosity this Christmas is the story of Miriam Zaffira, a widow of an Australian defence force officer and member of Legacy Australia, who was invited to join the Christmas event with her six-year old son, Isaac. When asked by Santa what he would like most for Christmas this year, Isaac’s request was for Santa to bring his dad back from heaven, so his “mum could be happy again”. Miriam says, “Isaac is at an age where he is starting to realise what he’s missing out on”. Miriam hasn’t kept many photos of her husband since his death and so was gifted a digital photo frame to store memories, both past and future. Little Isaac nearly forgot to ask Santa for his other Christmas list item – a Lego Go-Cart – which he also received.

Additionally, during the month of November, OO.com.au took the streets of Sydney surprising and bringing joy to innocent shoppers in three locations – Bondi Junction, Parramatta and Martin Place – giving people the chance to receive a gift of choice. Wrapped up and a surprise until opened, OO.com.au gave away plasma screen TVs, Razor scooters, kitchen appliances, kids toys and music accessories.

Giving away a total of $30,000 worth of gifts, OO.com.au most definitely brought joy and surprise to many people during Australia’s silly season this year.