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CNN 5 Good Things
How about a break — for your ears? At CNN, we know the news can be a lot to take in. So each week, 5 Good Things offers you a respite from the heavy headlines and intense news cycle. Treat yourself to something fun and uplifting every Saturday as we share the bright side of life from all over the globe.
Making 'Kiss-tory' Under a 600lb Mistletoe
CNN 5 Good Things
Dec 20, 2025
The Happiness Factory brings holiday cheer to people who need it most. An elementary school in Fort Worth, Texas couldn’t afford their annual Christmas gifts for its students, until TikTok made the magic happen. These sisters live far away from each other, but this holiday tradition brings them back together. This group believes Santa comes in every color. Plus, how many mistletoe-kissing couples does it take to make history?
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Host/Producer: Krista Bo Polanco
Producer: Eryn Mathewson
Showrunner: Faiz Jamil
Senior Producer: Felicia Patinkin
Editorial Support: Dianna Hill, Liberty Smith, Sophie Garnett
Episode Transcript
Krista Bo Polanco
00:00:00
Hey there, welcome. So one of my favorite ugly holiday sweaters that I own is one that says, "Merry Everything!" So whatever you celebrate, I wish you a merry everything. My name's Krista Bo Polanco. Let's get right into the holiday spirit with a festive edition of CNN 5 Good Things.
Kyle Murphy
00:00:18
Everybody steps up, you know, you just do what you would assume that humanity would do for children.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:00:24
We'll tell you how Christmas was saved for 400 elementary school students, then a sweet holiday tradition that's kept a family closer and has taken TikTok by storm.
Peggy Su Mosley
00:00:33
It's been really nice to read and to feel that even this little tradition that we have is kind of bringing some Christmas spirit to them as well.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:00:42
Plus, a story that shows when kids can see themselves in the holiday magic, it can make the biggest impact. And how many smooches under a 600 pound mistletoe does it take to break a world record? You'll have to stick around to find out. When we come back, there are Christmas carolers, and then there are groups like this one that spread joy all year round.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:01:07
New York City is humming with holiday music concerts this time of year, but they can be hard for some senior citizens to attend. So a nonprofit called The Happiness Factory is bringing the seasonal classics to them. Pascale Blachez calls herself the mom or the founder of Happiness Factory, which brings young musicians together to play concerts for senior citizens. She says they just wrapped a series of holiday concerts last week.
Pascale Blachez
00:01:37
We want to create joy. We want bring connection with the people who we are playing for. My big dream of my life was to bring that music to isolated people, to people who don't have access to music. Because my grandfather spent his last years in a nursing home. He was very sad and lonely, and he loved music.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:01:59
The organization started informally in 2018. Pascale, her husband, and her four kids lived in Paris at the time and created a family orchestra. Their first gig was a Christmas lunch at an assisted living center. It went so well, they were invited to perform at senior centers around the city. And over time, around 200 kid musicians joined their band. The Blachez family eventually moved to New York, but the kid led concerts for the elderly didn't stop. In fact, Pascale says it's grown to include about 250 kid musicians. High school senior Lola Ducroux started playing with the group a few years ago.
Lola Ducroux
00:02:38
I sing standards, a lot of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Chet Baker. We like to do classics. The elderly really, really like that, so we try to do a little bit of everything so everyone can get involved.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:02:49
Pascale says The Happiness Factory has played over 150 concerts at senior and assisted living centers around New York City.
Elisabeth
00:02:55
It was phenomenal. You brought happiness, especially for these people here who are more physically challenged. It was better than any medicine that they taking.
Lola Ducroux
00:03:12
It's such a special moment that we get to share because maybe they don't get to see their grandkids or kids as often. So it's a nice moment to share with them.
Pascale Blachez
00:03:20
It makes me feel that we put a little bit of beauty in these world and this is really what we wanted to achieve.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:03:34
My favorite Christmas movie is Jim Carey's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." But this story is gonna be about how a school in Fort Worth, Texas, and strangers on the internet saved Christmas for a bunch of kids. And it all started with a Hail Mary from Kyle Murphy.
Kyle Murphy
00:03:49
So for the past 50 years, our PTO has purchased one gift for every student because over 91% of our students are considered economically disadvantaged. And for some students, this is the only gift that they might have each year.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:04:04
'This year, the parent-teacher organization funds weren't there to keep the tradition alive. So she took to TikTok in October with only 100 followers and an Amazon wish list, asking for help for what she called Operation Save Christmas.
Kyle Murphy
00:04:17
Hi, my name is Kyle. I've got 55 days to come up with 400 Christmas presents. So each one of my 400 students at the elementary school I work with have a gift to take home to put under their.
Kyle Murphy
00:04:30
And within 48 hours, all the toys have been purchased and were headed to my house. And I would get Venmo and Cash App donations of $1 and $3 and $5. It said, I am a high school student, but I wanna help and this is what I can do.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:04:46
Even when the internet realized Christmas was back on the table, the giving didn't stopped there. Her house became Santa's satellite workshop with help from volunteers to wrap. Even the delivery drivers were invested.
Kyle Murphy
00:04:56
People were still itching to help. This was right at the time where some of the SNAP benefits were we're not sure what was gonna happen and they knew that my kids had some greater needs. So then we decided to add weighted stuffed animals as a second gift.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:05:10
And then came something Kyle said many of the kids never experienced before. A woman in California reached out, saying that her office raised funds to send stockings for each of the kids filled with goodies.
Kyle Murphy
00:05:20
Were things that were necessities like hats and gloves and toothbrushes and then other fun things and then they also received a personalized letter from Santa Clause himself. Earlier this week it all came together.
School Party
00:05:37
Hi Santa! Hi!
Kyle Murphy
00:05:37
And it was so cool to see the kids starstruck, you know, we didn't have the kids bring anything with them, but there were kids that inevitably fished in their pocket for a letter that they had written Santa, and it was just so magical.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:05:53
Kyle said she was shocked and grateful by how far this spread.
Kyle Murphy
00:05:57
The biggest thing is that anybody can help. I didn't have any large companies come in and save us. Collectively, we did this together. You just do what you would assume that humanity would do for children.
Fiona Milner
00:06:11
We don't live in the same city anymore. We've kind of grown up, we've moved away, and we've got quite busy lives. But this tradition, it really brings us back together each December.
Peggy Su Mosley
00:06:20
I never expected it to be what it is now.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:06:23
'Fiona Milner and Peggy Su Mosley are sisters from England. They take turns each year building each other an entire advent calendar, completely from scratch. It all started 11 years ago with a simple store-bought calendar that Peggy filled for Fiona. The next year, Fiona filled it for Peggy, and every year since, they've leveled up. You've gotta see these. Click on the link in our description to check it out.
Peggy Su Mosley
00:06:44
We take inspiration from things that are going on in each other's lives. Fiona has always been fascinated by space, and it kind of just came to me one day and I was like, space, why have I not done space yet?
Krista Bo Polanco
00:06:56
'So that was last year's focus. Peggy made an advent calendar that looked like a glittery solar system. For this year's creation, Fiona was inspired by Peggy's Christmas gift last year, a bunch of chickens. So she got working in October, knitting some chickens and building a coop that lays a golden paper mache egg with a little gift inside at the same time every morning for 24-days straight.
Gift reveal
00:07:17
Oh my god. Sensational. Oh my God. Did you make the chickens? Yep.
Peggy Su Mosley
00:07:24
It's gone bigger than just Fiona and me because it's like a whole family event now. Everyone kind of gets together to see the handover of the Advent Calendar.
Fiona Milner
00:07:34
'We both have quite screen-based jobs and actually finishing work and then going home and building something really crafty. It's really fun. It's a lo t of work, but I really enjoy it.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:07:46
When they shared this tradition on TikTok, they were touched by how many people saw their own families and sisters in it.
Peggy Su Mosley
00:07:51
It's been really nice to read and to feel that even like this little tradition that we have is kind of bringing some Christmas spirit to them as well.
Fiona Milner
00:08:01
I think it's really important to do something for other people, so I think it's a really good yearly annual thing that we do that brings us closer.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:08:14
Santa's got a red suit, a white beard, and for a long time, one specific look. But for some families, the holiday magic has been missing something. That's what inspired Stafford Braxton to start Santa's Just Like Me.
Stafford Braxton
00:08:26
Santa can be in all colors, shapes, sizes. He doesn't fit the one mold like we were taught growing up.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:08:33
'CNN affiliate KMPH reports the North Carolina-based group connects families and communities with Black Santas across the country, including Terry Scott in Fresno, California.
Terry Scott
00:08:42
You know, you have other people who want to criticize it, but you cannot criticize love.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:08:49
Terry says kids of all backgrounds line up to meet him, and some adults get excited too. For parents like Mercedes Bellinger, that visibility matters.
Mercedes Bellinger
00:08:57
'Being a dark-skinned Santa, you can represent anything. Black Santa, Puerto Rican Santa, you can do it all. For a little kid, they want to see someone that looks like them, and they want to feel connected.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:09:11
How many people does it take to pucker up and make history? I'll tell you after a quick break. Stick with us.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:09:22
'Gerren Price from Washington, D.C. proposed to his now-wife under a mistletoe placed on a memorial. They'll celebrate their 15-year wedding anniversary on Monday.
Gerren Price
00:09:31
Mistletoe has a personal significance to us. It's part of our love story and really she, in a lot of ways, was the inspiration for this entire thing.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:09:40
That thing was chasing the Guinness World Record last Saturday for the most couples kissing under the holiday shrub.
Gerren Price
00:09:46
There had been a record on the books for many years held by St. Louis, Missouri. They had 480 couples that had engaged in a big kiss moment under mistletoe in St. Louis. So we wanted to beat that. And in fact, we more than tripled that.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:10:00
'Gerren is the president of a non-profit called the Downtown D.C. Business Improvement District. It helped organize the first-ever National Kiss Under the Mistletoe event, which took place in downtown Washington, D. C., under a 600-pound art installation called the National Mistletoe.
Announcer
00:10:18
For the record. Three, two, one. Go!
Gerren Price
00:10:23
It took some time to acknowledge all the folks in the crowd. We had a couple that had been married 50 plus years. We had some folks who just met that same day. So they were the youngest, newest couple to the oldest couple. But it was just a really feel good, positive vibe.
Announcer
00:10:37
Ok, that is it! Stewards. You had a total of 1,435 people, couples. Yayyyy!
Gerren Price
00:10:46
I think I literally screamed out loud at the announcement. It was like just a dream come true to see so many happy, smiling, loving faces in the crowd. Honestly, something I will never, ever forget. It was beautiful.
Krista Bo Polanco
00:11:04
All right, that's all for now. Thank you so much for listening, and we hope this episode got you in the holiday spirit. We'll be back next Saturday with a special episode giving some positive updates on some of our favorite stories from this year. And don't forget to join us tomorrow for the next edition of CNN One Thing, wherever you get your podcasts. Have a good day, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays. Take care. Till next time.
