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🍨 From Salvation Army toys to pickleball tournaments: your community roundup

🍨 From Salvation Army toys to pickleball tournaments: your community roundup

Dustin Hart
December 04, 2025

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Good day, Wayzata. This is Wayzata Scoop: the local newsletter that's warmer than your heated seats in a Minnesota winter.

In today’s Scoop:

Donate to Stuff the Sleigh: Salvation Army Toy Campaign for Struggling Families 🎁
Stories of the Season: Dec. 14 Holiday Concert Spans Traditions 🎶
Jan. 9-11: Northstar Pickleball Hosts Three-Day Winter Tournament 🏓

Let’s dish.

— Dustin Hart

📢 TALK OF THE TOWN

KSTP's Stuff the Sleigh: Where Toy Donations Become Holiday Hope

Some families are still choosing between rent and groceries this holiday season, which means Christmas gifts fall somewhere between "luxury" and "impossible."

KSTP's Stuff the Sleigh campaign collects new, unwrapped toys for kids from infants to age 14, enabling the Salvation Army to distribute gifts to families who'd otherwise go without. The need is higher this year – while pandemic hardships feel distant for many, they've been replaced by sharply higher costs for food, rent, and utilities. Sixty thousand Minnesota households are behind on rent and facing eviction risk. Parents are making impossible choices, and holiday gifts often fall victim to survival expenses.

Stuff the Sleigh fills that gap. Your donation – whether toys or money – gives struggling neighbors hope and helps kids feel safe and loved during a season that can magnify financial stress. It's the kind of direct community support that actually lands with families who need it.

Drop off new unwrapped toys at KSTP 5 Eyewitness News Studios (3415 University Avenue, St. Paul) or other listed locations. Prefer to donate money?

Go to donate.salvationarmynorth.org/campaign/747525/donate and let the Salvation Army buy exactly what's needed most.

Sixty thousand households are behind on rent. One campaign that can make their kids' Christmas actually happen. Simple math, meaningful impact.

Drop-off: KSTP Studios, 3415 University Ave, St. Paul.

Minnetonka Choral Society's Holiday Concert: Stories Worth Singing About

December holidays come loaded with stories – some ancient, some traditional, all wrapped in music that makes them feel alive again.

Minnetonka Choral Society's "Stories of the Season" hits Sunday, Dec. 14 at 3 p.m., weaving together the narratives that define this time of year. We're talking Chanukah's Feast of Lights through "Mi Y'Malel," Christmas origins via Roy Ringwald's "Song of Christmas," plus the full range of holiday music from merry ("Shepherd's Pipe Carol," "I Saw Three Ships") to peaceful (Ola Gjeillo's "Serenity") to poignant (Tchaikovsky's "Crown of Roses"). And yes, "Twas the Night Before Christmas" makes an appearance because some stories transcend religious boundaries and just belong to December.

This isn't background holiday music for shopping or decorating – it's the kind of concert designed to trigger memories of holidays past while fostering hope for joyful ones ahead. The Choral Society leans into the storytelling aspect of holiday music instead of just performing greatest hits, which means you get context and emotion alongside vocal performance.

One afternoon, multiple traditions, shared through the universal language of choral music. It's the kind of December event that reminds you why these stories survive generation after generation.

Sunday, Dec. 14 at 3 p.m.

Tickets at minnetonkachoralsociety.ludus.com/show_page.php

Pure Pickleball Winter Challenge: Three Days of Court Competition in January

Pure Pickleball Winter Challenge: Three Days of Court Competition in January

When Minnesota winter makes you question your life choices, apparently, the answer is three consecutive days of indoor pickleball.

Northstar Pickleball is hosting the Pure Pickleball Winter Challenge Jan. 9-11 at 13100 12th Ave N in Plymouth, and it's designed for all skill levels – meaning both serious competitors and people who just enjoy hitting a wiffle ball with a paddle can show up. Fast-paced matches, division prizes, and the kind of energy that comes from gathering indoors when it's 10 degrees outside.

Three days gives you options: commit to the full tournament experience or just show up for a day and see what competitive pickleball actually looks like. Either way, you're spending January doing something besides complaining about snow or doom-scrolling weather forecasts.

Registration happens on PickleballBrackets.com, because even recreational sports have gone full digital coordination. Sign up now if you're serious, because tournament spots fill up when people realize they need winter plans that don't involve Netflix binges.

January 9-11, three days, all skill levels welcome. Winter survival through competitive sport – a Minnesota tradition.

Jan. 9-11 at 13100 12th Ave N, Plymouth.

📖 QOTW (QUOTE OF THE WEEK)

"Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas." - Calvin Coolidge

🌪️ WEATHER WATCH

Sunday's high of 13° is technically above zero, which at this point counts as a win.

Thu 04 17°/-7° Cloudy ☁️ | 💧1%

Fri 05 30°/11° Snow Showers 🌨️ | 💧50%

Sat 06 18°/1° Mostly Cloudy 🌥️ | 💧15%

Sun 07 13°/3° Partly Cloudy 🌤️ | 💧6%

Mon 08 22°/20° Snow Showers 🌨️ | 💧39%

Tue 09 31°/22° Snow Showers 🌨️ | 💧65%

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