WEST SUNBURY — Most people wait until after the holidays to take down their Christmas trees.

But students at Dassa McKinney Elementary School in West Sunbury have already been stripping the tree at their school. But, as students remove decorations, more appear on the tree.

That’s because the ornaments are donated hats, mittens, gloves and scarves to help keep the children warm.

“We always put up a tree and just decorated it for Christmas,” said Susan Stallard, guidance counselor at Dassa McKinney. “About five years ago, we started putting mittens and hats on the tree. We have kids who lose them or don’t have any at all.”

“It evolved into a hat and mitten tree,” Stallard said.

This year’s tree went up before Thanksgiving.

“As soon as the weather got cold, we said, ‘It’s time,’” Stallard said. “There was a lot of need right away the first week.”

In their classrooms, teachers announced when the tree was ready.

“The kids lit up when they saw it. The tree is part of the culture here,” said Brenda Knoll, principal at Dassa McKinney. “It’s something very important to them.”

The tree is at the school’s front entrance near the main office.

“They come right past the tree when they come in the building,” Knoll said.

The tree drew a lot of attention from the school’s more than 700 students when it first went up. Knoll said there are fewer items taken from the tree now because the immediate need has been fulfilled.

“They pick what they need,” Knoll said. “It’s not every day that they take something off the tree.”

Knoll said, “There are no questions asked.”

“We have distributed hundreds of items this year already,” Stallard said.

She said local churches are huge supporters of the school on every holiday. Their continuing donations, as well as those from businesses, school children and their parents, supply new decorations for the tree.

Anyone can donate hats, gloves, mittens and scarves. Nicole Fox, assistant principal at the school, said. The staff at the school’s main office will accept them.

“We have just all kinds of generous donations to help kids,” Fox said.

School secretaries Deanna Panza and Laurie Thompson with Stallard make up the team that monitors the tree and keeps it full.

“We really load it up. We can fit a lot on there,” Stallard said.

She said scarves are in demand this year. Items with movie characters or superheroes are especially popular, too.

The students decide whether they need something and then speak to their homeroom teacher before taking items from the tree.

“We’re not singling them out,” Fox said. “We don’t have to decide who needs them and who doesn’t.”

She said teachers know that if there is a need, they can send the child to the tree.

“You have to meet kids’ basic needs before you can teach them,” Fox said.

No one knows exactly when the tree will come down.

“We’ll leave it up until, hopefully, the Steelers go to the Super Bowl and it turns into a Super Bowl tree. If they don’t, we’ll keep it up,” Stallard said. “We just decide one day it’s time to come down. But we keep the supply of hats and gloves available until spring. It’s just that it’s not on the tree.”

“Our goal is to make sure the kids are warm,” Stallard said.