KITCHENER - The 18th annual Hope Spring Holiday Tour of Homes brought Fashion Santa and a good cause to the region on Friday and Saturday.
The self-guided tour is run by the Hope Spring Cancer Support Centre. It's a non-profit organization that offers support to families and patients outside of medical care.
Selected homes from Waterloo Region were professionally decorated for the holiday season. It gives people the opportunity to walk through and get inspiration for their own homes.
Tickets were sold for $35 for one day, or $50 for a two-day pass. All proceeds, which include paying to get a selfie with Fashion Santa, go toward Hope Spring.
This year's goal is to raise enough money for 100 wigs.
While Fashion Santa does help the event gain some attention, he says he attends for a more personal reason.
"Well the back story of Fashion Santa is I was a model in New York City for 15 years. My mother was diagnosed with cancer, I came back home, and sadly she passed away. And that's where the beard came out, in my grief. I fell asleep or whatever for six months and I just grew this beard out of, like I said, my grief," he said.
The event started on Friday at 4 p.m. and wraps up around the same time Saturday afternoon.
