Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry and his wife, author and entrepreneur Ayesha Curry, closed out 2025 the way they have closed out more than a decade of holiday seasons: by turning attention, and resources, toward the schoolchildren of Oakland. According to an announcement tied to their Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, the couple's 13th annual Christmas with the Currys centered on a wave of free, holiday-themed book fairs held across Oakland Unified School District elementary campuses.
The foundation said the book fairs ran through the first half of December, giving students the chance to browse shelves and choose brand-new titles to take home and keep. Rather than handing every child an identical package, organizers framed the events around choice, letting young readers explore and select books that spoke to them personally.
The announcement emphasized that the books were meant to be age-appropriate and culturally affirming, part of the foundation's broader argument that children read more, and read more willingly, when they see themselves reflected on the page and when the act of picking a book feels like a gift rather than a chore.
Literacy has become a defining pillar of Eat. Learn. Play. The organization has repeatedly pointed to Oakland reading data showing that only a fraction of local students read at grade level, a gap the Currys have described as both an educational crisis and a solvable one. The December book fairs are the public, celebratory face of a year-round effort aimed especially at the earliest grades, where reading habits take hold.
The 2025 edition built on initiatives the couple announced in prior years, including plans to renovate and restock elementary school libraries across the district. Corporate partners have helped underwrite the scale of the giveaways; the data-security firm Rubrik was cited as a lead sponsor of the 2025 book fairs.
For the Currys, the Oakland focus is deliberate. Eat. Learn. Play. was founded to attack the interlocking problems of childhood hunger, educational inequity and the shortage of safe places to play, and the foundation has concentrated its work in the Bay Area city rather than spreading itself thin nationally. The annual holiday event has grown from a single celebration into a logistics operation spanning many schools at once.
Stephen Curry's basketball fame guarantees headlines, but the couple has consistently tried to keep the spotlight on the students and educators rather than on themselves, casting the book fairs as a community effort involving teachers, volunteers and sponsors. The message to families is simple: reading is worth celebrating, and every child deserves books of their own.
Exact figures for the number of schools, students and books involved were stated in the foundation's and sponsor's own materials, and totals for annual campaigns can shift as events conclude. Readers who want to confirm the specifics, or support the work, should consult the official Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation channels directly.
Source date: December 1, 2025. Contextual photograph; it does not depict the people or the specific event described in this article. Photo: Curtis & Miller, Public domain ↗.
Sources & further reading
- Rubrik (Eat. Learn. Play. announcement) ↗
- Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation ↗
- Eat. Learn. Play. (event release PDF) ↗
This article is editorial coverage, not an endorsement. For donations or programme participation, go directly to the organization’s official website.
