The Australian real estate agent spreading holiday cheer one day at a time – realestate.com.au

Forget sleighs and reindeer: real estate agent Karyn O’Dea brings a festive atmosphere to her Gold Coast community every year with two cars, thousands of free Christmas puddings and a small but dedicated team.

It’s a huge operation for the Ray White Robina agent and her team, who have hand-delivered 2,764 Christmas puddings to property owners this year.

Ms O’Dea has been organizing the annual Christmas giveaway for the past 14 years, a tradition that started as a small gesture and has since grown into a large-scale community effort.

“It’s about giving back to the community at Christmas,” she said.

“We have a great mix of people in our community, from young families and professionals, but there are also a lot of older people in our community and at Christmas you want to make sure everything is OK.”

Ms O’Dea, who works in the Robina area of ​​the Gold Coast, said the idea started with 300 puddings in her first year, which were carefully chosen for practicality.

One of the lucky recipients of this year’s Christmas pudding. Image: supplied

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“At first I wanted to give back to the community because the community really supports us,” she said.

“I was thinking about what you can give to someone at Christmas and leave for them when they’re not at home. You wouldn’t leave a bottle of wine or chocolates behind, so we went for Christmas puddings.”

The team spends weeks purchasing and delivering thousands of puddings each year. Image: supplied

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What started as a modest giveaway has steadily expanded as her customer base grew. Last year Ms O’Dea and her team delivered 2,221 puddings, and she said her client list has grown by hundreds of new property owners this year.

Obtaining so many Christmas puddings has become one of the biggest logistical challenges, leaving Ms O’Dea and her team scouring supermarkets in the weeks leading up to the festive season.

The team has been giving away Christmas puddings for 14 years. Image: supplied

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“As soon as we see a pudding on the shelves, we go to every supermarket in the area and clear the shelves,” she said. “Even the staff in the store knows who I am.”

Delivering the puddings is also no easy task, as it will be a full-time job for four employees in two cars for about two weeks.

Mrs O’Dea says she continues to give away Christmas puddings every year to give back to the community. Image: supplied

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But Ms O’Dea said the community’s response has kept the tradition alive year after year.

“I get a lot of calls and texts, and I get a lot of pictures of the pudding on the table,” she said.

For Ms O’Dea, the motivation remains simple: “It’s just nice to be able to say Merry Christmas to people in the community.”