Virtual tree tally begins with hopes city will remember those less fortunate
Whether the year has been good or bad, the hope of Operation Santa Claus is that Hong Kong will make good on its pledge to do good for the benefit of those less fortunate.
Its virtual 'Christmas tree' goes up today, tracking the progress of the charity drive that will end at midnight on New Year's Eve.
Ordinary folk, schools and companies have been doing their part - however big or small - for the sake of the 13 small charities that are dependent on Operation Santa Claus to realise their wishes of making life more bearable for people on the fringes of society in these uncertain times.
Operation Santa Claus started solely as an RTHK campaign but it stopped after the Community Chest came into being in the late 1960s, said Bryan Curtis of RTHK, a volunteer master of ceremonies at many of the charity drive's events since 2002.
It was relaunched in 1988 when RTHK Radio 3 teamed up with the South China Morning Post to coorganise the annual event. Each year they selected one charity, which invariably helped children.
That all changed in 2003 when both media organisations decided that the more charities they could help, the better.