Brooklyn Coffee Shop Organizes Homemade Christmas Card Drive For Little Girl With Cancer

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A little girl from Boston is teaching New Yorkers that it isn't what's under the Christmas tree that counts, it's about the holiday spirit.

And as CBS2's John Dias reported, she needs that very spirit right now.

As she sits next to her almost empty mailbox with a smile that shines brighter than a lit up tree, 4-year-old Ruby Millea isn't waiting for Santa Claus. She's waiting for the mailman.

After the Boston girl was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a form of childhood cancer, her mother says she had a major surgery that successfully removed 95 percent of her tumor.

"We tell her, you know, 'you're brave, you're strong'," Nichole Millea said. "She says, 'I'm not brave. I'm Ruby'."

Ruby has to spend the holidays at the hospital, so when the nurse asked what she wanted for Christmas her answer was a simple one; handmade cards.

When word made it's way from Beantown to Brooklyn, the owners of Freehold coffee shop set up a mini Santa's workshop at the cafe.

"I have never met her," owner Brad Gallagher said. "I just got wind of the story and wanted to do something."

Gallagher says over the last few days they've had hundreds of people make holiday cards. He says the goal is collecting 1,000 before they ship them up to Boston Wednesday night.

Gallagher calls it "an amazing outpouring."

Hopefully Ruby can speak French, because people visiting Brooklyn from all over the world are filling out cards. Locally, Brooklynite Lydia Mazzolini and her boyfriend learned about the card drive on social media. They say  they just had to be a part of it.

"We think about material goods and what not, and this little girl who is going through so much just wants cards for Christmas," Lydia said.

Holiday cheer spread from the world over means Ruby may soon need a mailbox bigger than even Santa's.

If you'd like to send Ruby a Christmas card, visit the GoFundMe page set up in her name.