Glasgow's Spirit of Christmas

This will be our 10th annual children's gift campaign of supporting local children suffering hardship or living in poverty in Glasgow and surrounding regions. We provide support throughout Glasgow, North and South Lanarkshire, Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, Ayrshire, Argyll & Bute and East Renfrewshire. We hope to provide support to every child that we receive referrals for from our partnering charities and children's organisations each festive season.

Now imagine that your generosity has turned that sad face into a bright happy excited child on Christmas morning. Giving is the true spirit of Christmas!

Can you help us continue to bring the magic of Christmas to children suffering hardship or living in poverty this year?

BE A SECRET SANTA

The sad reality is that 1 in 5 children in Scotland and 1 in 3 in Glasgow lives in poverty and that figure is set to rise over the coming years with a massive increase forecasted in child poverty

We want to do all we can to make sure every child is included at Christmas and has a wonderful magical experience.

No-one can imagine waking up as a child on Christmas Day to no presents or even a hot meal.

Our Glasgow's Spirit of Christmas Facebook community, also known as #theplacewherekindnesshappens has grown to over 38,000 members. Together with gift and cash donations last year from private organisations, community groups, public and private sector organisations and you our amazing supporters alongside kind volunteers helping behind the scenes, we provided gifts and cherished memories to over 19,000 referred children on Christmas Day and over £3.8m worth of gifts to 102,700 children in the last 9 years.

This is what we call community compassion in action. Join our Facebook group to keep updated on how the campaign is progressing here; https://www.facebook.com/groups/613947025394004

Glasgow's Spirit of Christmas Facebook Community Group ' and access our Christmas Portal through our charity's website at;https://www.cultivatingmindfulness.org.uk/glasgows-spirit-of-christmas

Each child and young person age 0-16 years plus receives a Christmas 'Gift Made with Love' filled with a selection of age relevant gifts, toys and treats for a specific age group and for teenagers we may also include cinema/restaurant or One 4 All vouchers.

Take a look at some of the beautiful 'Gifts Made with Love' donated by our supporters in recent years. We welcome any size donation as it all adds up to create a special, memorable and joyful day for a child not expecting Santa to come to their house this year.

Every single gift donated as in previous years will be made by referral through our partnerships with local children's charities, foodbanks and children's organisations. This ensures that gifts and support donated will be placed directly into the hands of allocated and referred children who need them most and to make Christmas the special and magical day it should be for all children.

Together with your support and kind donations, we have generated over £3.8m worth of gifts for local children since we started, we have been able to continue our children's campaign even in the face of financial and distribution obstacles arising from the pandemic by opening up The Wellbeing Centre. This vital resource has allowed us to offer logistical and gift distribution support to our partners, prevent many thousands of children going without gifts on Christmas Day and continue our work of community inclusion and wellbeing post Christmas throughout the year.

Our campaign continues to rely on big hearted volunteers in many roles such as admin projects, packing, fundraising events, social media etc to help us achieve our aims each year as we have just 1 dedicated paid staff member who works on the campaign all year round. This ensures that maximum benefit goes to those who the campaign was set up to support. To keep our campaign costs as low as possible we are always looking for volunteers in a variety of roles to help from 1st August until and through the launch from 1st October - 22nd December. If you would like to volunteer for a minimum of 6 weeks in any of our volunteer roles please get in touch using our Volunteer Form.

Glasgow's Spirit of Christmas is a truly miraculous campaign because of you!

Whether it's an office Secret Santa, or Christmas themed workday or Santa Dash or Stroll event you are participating in to help us raise funds on your own, with your family or colleagues at work we really value your support.

Your support is vital to help us to continue the work we have built together over the last 10 years to ensure we can continue to give a magical Christmas to as many local children and families in need as possible again this year.

Please note that any donations that are received too late for distribution in time for Christmas will be allocated to other charity activities and costs to meet children's wellbeing needs in the New Year or kept in reserve for next year's Christmas campaign.

SHARE OUR CHRISTMAS ADVERT - WATCH, SHARE AND SPREAD THE MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS!

Highlights from last year's children's gift campaign.