A smiling middle-aged man with gray hair, wearing a striped shirt and a dark vest, standing indoors against a yellow wall with signs and papers.

Founder & CEO

Charlie Russo

Christmas Magic began in 1985 with a father trying to teach his son a lesson. Charlie Russo wanted to show his son Pete what Santa Claus is really about, so he brought his kids and their friends along as elves to give Christmas to children in a nearby shelter. The magic, he says, was that he couldn't get his elves to leave. The next year, they reached 150 children.

The work runs deeper than the holidays for him. As a young man, Charlie lived for six years at Melville House, a residential home for young men, and later worked as a social worker at the Nassau County Children's Shelter. He credits both with shaping his commitment to young people and families in crisis.

By profession, he's a lawyer, a senior partner at Russo, Karl, Widmaier & Cordano. He chairs the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless and the board of Hope House Ministries in Port Jefferson, and he received the New York State Bar Association's Root/Stimson Award for community service. At Christmas Magic, he's the founder, the fundraiser, and the man in the red suit, and like everyone here, he does it as a volunteer.

"Kids don't choose to be homeless; they just are……Magic is something that every child deserves to experience in their life."

— Charlie Russo
Three men dressed in costumes, standing outdoors with trees, a tent, and a food truck in the background. One man is in pirate attire, another has a bandana and a vest, and the third man is casually dressed with a baseball cap.
A child excitedly opening a Christmas gift with Santa Claus sitting nearby, dressed in traditional Santa attire, including a red suit, white beard, and glasses.
Three men standing in front of a fire truck, two of them in firefighter uniforms and the third in casual clothing, posing for a photograph.
A group of nine men sitting around a long table in a restaurant, eating breakfast. The table has plates with waffles, pizza, scrambled eggs, and other breakfast items, as well as glasses of water and coffee.