Glasgow's Spirit of Christmas

Our campaign is now in it's 8th year of supporting local children suffering hardship 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 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?

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 35,000 members in 7 years without core funding. 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 18,124 referred children on Christmas Day and over £2.2m worth of gifts to 63,887 children in the last 7 years.

This is what we call community compassion in action. Join our Facebook group to keep updated on how the campaign is progressing here 'Glasgow's Spirit Of Christmas' and on our official charity website at www.cultivatingmindfulness.org.uk/gsoc

Each child and young person age 0-16 years plus receives a Christmas 'Gift Made with Love' filled with age relevant gifts, toys and treats for a specific age group and for teenagers we may also include cinema/clothing/restaurant or toiletries 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. Any donations that are received too late for distribution in time for Christmas will be allocated to other charitable projects that we offer to meet children's wellbeing needs in the New Year or kept in reserve for next year's Christmas campaign.

With your support and kind donations generating over £2.2m worth of gifts for local children since we started, maintaining a stable, accountable and sustainable infrastructure is key to ensuring a campaign of this size achieves its aims. Unbelievably our campaign doesn't reply on multiple paid teams of staff, we have just ONE dedicated staff member to support, organise and plan each annual campaign all year round ensuring maximum return and benefit goes to those who the campaign was set up to support. As you can imagine she is kept pretty busy! It has grown from a 6 week event in 2014 to requiring all year round managing and planning. We have relied on 100% volunteers since 2014 in all other support admin roles, logistics, technical web/app support, Santa's workshop, Christmas packing and fundraising events, social media and Facebook group moderators.

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

To maintain keeping our campaign costs low we are always looking for volunteers in a variety of roles to help us throughout our busiest period from 1st October to 22nd December. We value your support to help us raise funds or fundraise through events on your own, with your family or colleagues at work to continue the work we have built together and to ensure we can continue to give 100% kindness to as many local children and families in need as possible again this year.

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

TOGETHER COMMUNITIES DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE! THANK YOU FOR BRINGING THE MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS TO LOCAL CHILDREN SUFFERING HARDSHIP OR POVERTY THIS YEAR!