THE COST OF GIVING

Navigating the backlash to viral holiday giving

- MADISON MALONE KIRCHER

For several years now, Elisabeth Cook has purchased Christmas gifts for children in need.

Since November, Cook, a couponing influencer with more than 800,000 followers on TikTok, has posted updates about holiday shopping expeditions and has shared videos that show her loading carts to the brim with clothes and games. Cook thought she was doing a good thing and hoped that her posts might motivate others to get involved.

Then came the backlash. On Facebook, some accused her of doing it all for attention.

“I'm just trying to encourage people to help,” Cook, 42, who lives in Lansing, Michigan, said in a phone interview. “I don’t feel like I’m bragging.”

In the background, the sound of a store’s loudspeaker could be heard. Cook was at a Walmart doing a little more last-minute shopping, she said.

She is not the only one posting about her hauls for charity — or the only one being scrutinised for it. Buying items for the Salvation Army's Angel Tree programme, which for more than four decades has collected gifts for children across the country, has in recent years become an annual social media trend and a source of somewhat unexpected heated debate online.

Influencers and their followers log on to spar over thorny questions about gift-giving and charity: What gifts are appropriate? Is posting about them gauche, an effort to gain a little more cachet (and more followers)?