LGBTQ+

Queer Santa spreads holiday cheer to LGBTQ+ youth for 25 years

Linda Warren, 80, brings gifts to kids who wouldn't otherwise be getting one at The Center on Colfax's annual Holigay celebration.

Author: Courtney Yuen
Published: 5:09 AM MST December 22, 2023
Updated: 5:09 AM MST December 22, 2023

DENVER — Feelings of isolation and abandonment can be all the more painful during the holidays, especially for LGBTQ+ kids who feel rejected by their families.

"It's very important to me that these children will, even if they're put out of their home, will have a place to go and people that will care for them," said 80-year-old Linda Warren. ... It's why Warren put on her red cap 25 years ago to become Queer Santa.

Each year with The Center on Colfax and volunteers, she brings gifts, cheer, and acceptance to children who haven't always felt loved for who they are.

"It was very moving for me and I have to admit in the beginning I did a lot of crying," said Warren. "I would have to hold it together when I was talking to the children, but when I was not, I was like, this is awful. I can never let this happen to any child."



Credit: 9NEWS - Courtney Yuen
"It’s been a very warm and very wonderful feeling to me to be able to help these children," said Linda Warren, 80.

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Credit: The Center on Colfax

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Anyone who'd like to help with Queer Santa's gift list for next year can donate to Rainbow Alley at The Center on Colfax.

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NEWS > COLORADO NEWS

“Queer Santa” has been giving Colorado’s LGBTQ youth Christmas presents for 20 years



Linda Warren, right, and her partner Rosalie Dorland prepare to host a gift-wrapping party at Warren's home on Dec. 7, 2018, in Westminster, Colorado. The two will be joined by a crowd of volunteers to wrap gifts for the children of the GLBT Community Center of Colorado's Rainbow Alley program. Warren has helped provide gifts for the holiday party at the center for the past 20 years.

Kathryn Scott, Special to The Denver Post
Linda Warren, right, and her partner Rosalie Dorland prepare to host a gift-wrapping party at Warren’s home on Dec. 7, 2018, in Westminster, Colorado. The two will be joined by a crowd of volunteers to wrap gifts for the children of the GLBT Community Center of Colorado’s Rainbow Alley program. Warren has helped provide gifts for the holiday party at the center for the past 20 years.

By ELIZABETH HERNANDEZ | ehernandez@denverpost.com | The Denver Post
December 19, 2018 at 6:00 a.m.

Twenty years ago on Christmas Eve, Linda Warren was preparing for a holiday party when she got a desperate call from someone she barely knew who worked at the GLBT Community Center of Colorado, alerting her that presents for the LGBTQ children’s holiday party had fallen through.

That night, the now-76-year-old Westminster woman became the self-proclaimed “Queer Santa,” not hesitating to pause her own plans and buy gift cards out of her own pocket for needy children she’d never met. Warren has reprised her role each year since, growing the tradition bigger and better in the name of Christmas spirit.

“From the very start, there was one thing I required of the gifts,” Warren said. “I said, ‘I don’t know a lot about this, but I feel the children don’t get a lot of love,’ so I wanted them all to have a tag that said, ‘Love, Santa.'”

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Rejected by her family, this woman has been "Queer Santa" for 22 years.

Each December, Linda Warren, 77, suits up in a classic Santa Claus outfit for elaborate gift-giving to LGBTQ youths.

INSPIRED LIFE

Rejected by her family, this woman has been ‘Queer Santa’ for 22 years

By Sydney Page
December 24, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. EST



Linda Warren, 77, has been known as “Queer Santa” for 22 years. Each Christmas, she fundraises for The Center on Colfax in Denver to buy holiday presents for LGBTQ youths who feel rejected by their families. (Courtesy of Linda Warren)

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For the past 22 years, Linda Warren has called herself “Queer Santa.” ... Each December, the 77-year-old woman suits up in a classic Santa Claus outfit for an elaborate gift-giving operation in Denver, where she distributes gifts to LGBTQ youths who feel rejected by their families. Their sense of isolation and abandonment, she said, is heightened during the holidays.

Warren became Queer Santa on Christmas Eve 1998. She was preparing for her own holiday party when she got a panicked call from a friend who was volunteering at the local LGBTQ community center, The Center on Colfax. The annual youth holiday festivities had gone awry when a gift donor backed out at the last minute. Help was needed.

Although Warren wasn’t volunteering with the organization at the time, she immediately bought Target gift cards for the young people at the center. On each card, she wrote, “Love, Santa.” ... Warren’s inner Santa Claus was ignited, she said, and the tradition was born.



Although Rainbow Alley typically throws an elaborate “Holigay” party for LGBTQ youths in the program, this year they set up tables at the center’s parking lot and invited youths to stop by for a present. (The Center on Colfax)

“I told the people at the center that I will make sure these children who wouldn’t get a present at home get one every year from me,” said Warren, a grandmother and three-time cancer survivor. ... She has kept that promise.

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This story has been updated to reflect that Linda Warren first became Queer Santa on Christmas Eve 1998.

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