Renaissance Consignment hosts toy drive

Renaissance Consignment & Marketplace is hosting its second Christmas Smiles event to benefit the local children's hospital.

The store is home to a 7-foot Christmas tree decorated with the stories and faces of children from Children's of Alabama. Each photo also includes a Christmas wish for one of the children who will be in the hospital over Christmas.

Renaissance invites guests to participate by selecting a child's card from the tree and fulfilling that wish, and some gifts are as simple as bubbles and markers. Once you have chosen a child from the Tree of Smiles, you can bring the item, unwrapped, to Renaissance Consignment & Marketplace no later than Dec. 10.

All the toys raised will benefit Children's of Alabama's Sugar Plum Shop, an in-hospital toy store made so that parents of currently hospitalized patients can "shop"-free of charge-for gifts. More than 500 kids have benefited from the Sugar Plum Shop annually, each receiving at least five gifts in addition to a book, a stuffed animal and a family board game.

Renaissance Consignment & Marketplace is located at 6801 Cahaba Valley Road, Suite 120. For more information, call 980-4471 or visit renaissanceconsignment.com.