The Los Altos office of Home Instead Senior Care, the world’s largest provider of non-medical home care and companionship for the elderly, has teamed with Senior Services Agencies and local retailers to provide presents to seniors who otherwise might not receive a gift this holiday season.

“In addition to supplying gifts, “Be a Santa to a Senior” is also designed to help stimulate human contact and social interaction for seniors who are unlikely to have guests during the holidays,” said Bob Cunningham owner of the Home Instead Senior Care office serving Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties.

“Since children are often the focus of holiday festivities, we’d like to help brighten the holidays for some area seniors as well.”

Here’s how the program, which runs through Dec. 17, works: Prior to the holiday season, the participating local non-profit organizations identified financially needy and lonely seniors in the community and provide those names to Home Instead Senior Care for this community service program.

Christmas trees, which went up in the Wal-Mart store at the San Antonio Shopping Center in Mountain View on Nov. 15, feature ornaments with the first names of seniors and their respective gift requests.

Holiday shoppers can pick up an ornament, buy the items on the list, and leave them at the store along with the ornament attached.

Home Instead Senior Care will enlist the volunteer help of its staff, eldercare business associates, non-profit groups and others in the community to collect, wrap and distribute the gifts to these seniors.

A citywide gift-wrapping day, when hundreds of the presents will be wrapped, will be held on Dec. 14.

If you know the name of a needy senior, or are interested in volunteering to help on the citywide gift-wrapping day, contact Ben Leoncio, community care coordinator for Home Instead Senior Care, at 691-9671.