Here’s a fun world record attempt that’s just perfect for the holidays. This weekend Dalton Park Shopping Centre is getting shoppers together for its Crackathon.

We’re not sure about that name, but the event’s heart is in the exact right place. The record attempt is for the most people simultaneously pulling Christmas crackers, and Dalton Park hopes to have the biggest cracker pull ever. With luck and help from Real Radio, it will get together 1500 people organized into pulling groups.

As the groups gather, Dalton Park will collect donations for Hope4Kidz, a non-profit that supports the well-being of youngsters who require various degrees of extra care, whether they are suffering from a physical or mental disability, living with a serious or prolonged illness, or need respite from poverty or abuse.

At 6 p.m. the Crackathon countdown will begin, culminating in a great big crack. With that cathartic event under their belts, shoppers will get to enjoy Santa’s big Christmas light switch on and a fantastic fireworks show. The shopping center will also stay open a bit later than usual for festive shoppers to enjoy their holiday shopping.

It’s that time of year again – Santa Claus is coming to town.

Sherway Gardens is selling tickets for its Santa Experience, due to start in just under two weeks. Have you heard about it before? It’s pretty cool.

Instead of spending a half hour in line for a minute of their child in Santa’s lap, Sherway Gardens sells $5 tickets to give kids a chance to spend some quality time with the jolly ol’ elf. For half an hour, children and their parents can join Santa for an interactive play session with singalongs, dancing and story reading. Children get the chance to share their Christmas wishes with Santa, and parents are given the opportunity to take an informal photo of their little ones posing with him.

Oh, and the kicker? 100% of the ticket cost goes to Sleeping Children Around the World. The charity provides bed kits for children in need. Mats or mattresses, pillows, sheets, blankets, and mosquitos nets, as needed, are provided to kids in developing countries, along with clothes, towels and school supplies. Talk about a merry Christmas for all.

Not only that, but Sherway Gardens encourages participants to bring new, unwrapped toys to donate. For their kindness, the center gives donors a chance to win a special home visit from Santa on December 21.

We hear a lot about Guinness World Record attempts here at Shopping Center Weekly, but we rarely hear back about how they turn out (hint, hint – you know where to find us). Here’s one that got back to us – wildly successful, of course: The Big Shave Off at Manchester Arndale.

The Gentry Grooming Co and Wilkinson teamed up at the center’s Hallé Square to raise money for Orchid, the men’s cancer charity. To participate, men were asked to offer up a donation of £3.00 – £5.00 to the cause. They also needed to be 19 or older and half at least a day’s growth of stubble. They also shaved themselves.

The center managed to pull together 268 faces to shave over the 8 hour period, exceeding the previous record of 250. Award winning musician Catherine Taylor-Dawson entertained participants and passers-by with live covers over everything from Oasis to The Jungle Book.

Participants were given distinctly manly VIP Goody Bags worth £20 courtesy of The Gentry Grooming Co and Spabreaks.com and had the chance to win raffle prizes including golf trips and grilled meals.

Adele Lock, managing director of The Gentry Grooming Co and former star of The Apprentice said “We are delighted with the result, all our team worked incredibly hard to encourage local men in Manchester to take part and make a generous donation to Orchid, from passing shoppers to participants who have supported our campaign for Orchid from day one.”

Here’s a happy bit of news: The Glades Shopping Centre has just announced it’s managed to raise over £30,000 for breast cancer research and treatment.

The center has spent the last few weeks with breast cancer awareness activities, but for the last 18 months it’s also been raising money for the Lymph Node Analyser Appeal. Shoppers helped pick the appeal as its charity for the year, as the analyser allows patients’ results to be read on the day of the biopsy, saving them the painful, frightening wait for results and allowing life-saving treatments to begin even sooner.

Mr Anil Desai, Consultant Breast Surgeon at the Princess Royal University Hospital, announced the center’s fashion show, commented “We’re absolutely delighted that the generosity of shoppers and the Glades has resulted in the original £30,000 target being exceeded. This and other fundraising allowed a lymph node analyser to be purchased for the PRUH in February this year, although our fight against breast cancer will go on.”

The fashion show included looks modeled by women who were currently or previously undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Shoppers paid £10 a seat to attend, and helped create an emotional and supportive environment for the amateur models.

Alongside the fashion show, the center raised money with the return of its ‘Bra of Inspiration’. Shoppers added paper roses to the oversized bra, purchasing them for a suggested donation of £1. The roses held notes and tributes to loved ones touched by breast cancer.

Center management also got involved with a sponsored treadmill event, a sponsored tandem sky dive, and a sponsored bike ride, bringing in several thousand additional pounds.

The Heart Gallery of Broward County is on the road. It takes beautiful photos of children in the foster care system with it, and holds events that create awareness of those children and their needs, both for forever families and for what help and love can be offered.

Last month, the Heart Gallery stopped in at Westfield Broward to introduce a new program: the Wish Gallery. It brought photos of children who are having birthdays in the next few months. Many shoppers passing by were moved to donate gift cards and fill out birthday cards to brighten those children’s days.

According to an article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the event was a great success:

“The new Wish Gallery was launched at the Westfield Broward mall and was a success, giving more than 40 children whose birthdays are through January not just one, but two presents.

“We just wanted everybody to make sure they’re remembered on their birthday,” Barbara Schechter, executive director of Heart Gallery Broward County, said.

The program is under the Heart Gallery of Broward County, a traveling photography exhibit of about 100 of the county’s foster children. Most are the ones that are harder to adopt because of their age. With the holidays coming up, many nonprofits conduct toy drives for Christmas and Hanukkah, but like other December babies, these children’s birthdays can be overlooked.”

While this event was organized by one specific Heart Gallery, the concept is a national one. If you’d like to learn more, you can visit its website.