For more than a century, Santa Claus has been distributing toys to children in need in Natchez under the auspices of the Children’s Christmas Tree Fund.

And if there is a Mrs. Claus behind all of the activity in recent memory, it has been Katherine Killelea.

Killelea, who volunteered for the Children’s Christmas Tree even as a child, has helped perpetuate the annual event begun by former Natchez Democrat publisher James W. Lambert.

&uot;It’s just Natchez,&uot; Killelea said. &uot;It was just brought up with everybody every year. Everybody was a part of it.

The Christmas tree fund began in 1900 as the Poor Children’s Christmas Tree, a chance for needy children to receive toys from Santa Claus.

&uot;His heart and soul were in this Christmas Tree for Poor Children, and his purse was ready to supply any deficit in the fund,&uot; a Democrat obituary said of Lambert when he died just days before Christmas in 1906. The tree fund committee, it was said, had a heavy heart that year but went on with the toy distribution in his memory.

And for years after Lambert’s death his descendants kept the new tradition alive. His daughter Louise Lambert was the person who invited a 10-year-old Katherine Ferguson (now Killelea) to help put bags of toys together. She was lured with the promise of hot chocolate but stayed year after year because the cause was so special.

In later years, the Santa Claus Committee, a group of businessmen who help distribute the gifts and select the Santa each year, asked Killelea to organize the Christmas Tree Fund. She had long since fallen in love with the holiday tradition.

&uot;It’s a beautiful thing, seeing those children get the toys,&uot; Killelea said.

Along the way two Christmas tree traditions quietly merged &045;&045; the one for white children and a second, begun by Dr. Joseph Dumas for black children, and there has been one tree ever since.

Finding children in need has never been a problem. Early on, Killelea remembered, the members of the tree fund committee stood on the street and asked neighbors who was in need.

Now Killelea receives a list from Catholic Charities and occasionally receives private requests.

The tree fund committee tries not to turn down anyone who asks for help if they are truly in need.

The Christmas Tree Fund exists because of donations from area residents, and that is the main item on Killelea’s wish list this year.

She and the tree fund committee use the donations to buy toys for the some 300 children who will receive gifts from Santa Claus at Braden School on Christmas Eve.

Different age groups receive the same gifts &045;&045; tea sets for the young girls, perhaps, or basketballs for the older boys. And each child receives a bag of candy, wrapped up each year by members of the Junkin family, tied to the Lamberts by birth and to the Killeleas by marriage.

But the Christmas Tree Fund would also not exist, Killelea said, without the volunteers who work hard every year to make the holiday event a success.

The Natchez Public Works department cuts down the tree and sets it up at Braden School, while regular volunteers &045;&045; including students such as Trinity Episcopal School Key Club members &045;&045; help put gift bags together. Members of the Rotary Club and ABATE bike club often collect donations as well.

And Dr. Don and Katherine Killelea’s children, of course, have been brought up to take part.

&uot;People are so good, too,&uot; Mrs. Killelea said. &uot;I have so many hands that help.&uot;

Over the years, some of those hands were once recipients of gifts themselves.

Killelea remembers the generosity of one volunteer who admitted to her, &uot;I was once one of those little children myself.&uot;

Killelea believes the 103-year-old Christmas Tree Fund will endure for many years to come.

&uot;I don’t see why it wouldn’t,&uot; she said. &uot;There’s always someone that needs something.&uot;