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Santa Stork is back but this year things will be a little different. As demand for our service continues to grow, our main priority will be to focus on our core work. At the heart of Stripey Stork is the notion that every child in Surrey should have the essentials they need to thrive and with this in mind, we will be looking to balance the need for winter essentials with Christmas giving.
We are delighted to announce that we will be working with Truly Giving to provide Christmas presents for children across Surrey and Croydon in 2024. Both organisations have a track record of providing Christmas gifts to families across Surrey and beyond for many years and will this year join forces to deliver a special Christmas campaign. We have also created our brand new Stripey Stork Christmas bundles (more details below).
To best meet the needs of your families, there will be two options for you to choose from:
Stripey Stork will provide age-appropriate bundles for children. Each bundle will include items like a blanket, books, toiletries and chocolate coins. There will be the option to add an age-appropriate gift chosen from a variety of donations we receive from the community. This approach will ensure that each child has a wonderful bundle of items on Christmas morning. This service is ideal for requests where the choice of gift is less critical than ensuring each child receives a present.
For families where you think a particular type of gift is important (eg. Peppa Pig, Barbie, football, gaming), referral partners should refer to Truly Giving. They will ask for the age, gender, and interests of the child, and match them with a donor who provides a gift tailored to the child’s wishes.
Stripey Stork and Truly Giving are working together and will share data to avoid duplication of requests and ensure that the fantastic community support is used to best effect.
All gifts can be collected from the Stripey Stork offices in Redhill. Delivery of gifts is possible in some instances with prior arrangement.
More detailed information will be sent with the links when they are ready to go live.
We believe this collaboration will make a significant impact on the lives of many children this Christmas, and we thank you for your continued support.
Our goal is simple; to provide a personal Christmas gift for as many children as we can across Surrey and the surrounding areas. With many families struggling as energy prices and interest rates rise, we know that the challenge to deliver even a simple family Christmas will be bigger than ever. Santa Stork is here to ensure that no child in our community has to think that Santa has forgotten them.
We are expecting a record number of requests this year, but the number of gifts we distribute will depend on how much support we receive from the community. If funds become low then we cannot guarantee every request will be fulfilled – although we always try our best – so we urge you to submit your family’s gift lists as soon as possible.
As a healthcare professional or support worker who works with us throughout the year, you can make a Santa Stork referral on behalf of the families you select from your caseload. Everything you need to make a referral is here on this page:
1. The Christmas gift catalogue – with a good variety of popular gifts covering all ages.
2. Collection booking system.
3. The referral spreadsheet – for you to complete, with all gift requests for your families.
Please take the time to read the information, including the FAQs. If you have any further questions please contact our team of elves who will be happy to help.
The objective of the work we do at Stripey Stork is to provide essential items for children from 0-18 years, and to offer that service all year round. As demand for our service grows, and costs to deliver the service increase, we must prioritise that core work. No one would want us to prioritise providing Christmas gifts to a child over a safe place for a baby to sleep, and so we need to focus on keeping our waiting lists low for items like cots and buggies.
We are also aware of other groups who offer Christmas gifts across the region and its apparent that in recent years we have in some cases been helping the same organisations and families.
We love the Santa Stork campaign, and know how popular it is with families, volunteers and supporters so it will remain in our calendar, but as the largest baby bank in Surrey we will keep a focus on our core work. This year’s approach allows us to balance the need for winter essentials and Christmas giving, and we’re grateful for your support in doing that.
We will not be offering the catalogue this year. Referral partners will complete the spreadsheet with basic information about the family (age/gender of the children etc). Our volunteers will then select an age-appropriate bundle of items for the children, including a toy wherever possible, from the selection donated by the community or via our Amazon wishlist.
Referral partners will also have the option to book a slot to collect, at which time they can also choose some items for their families (note that this will be offered for referral partners only and not for the families to attend these sessions).
As with previous years this service is aimed at families where the children are unlikely to receive any other gifts. These are not intended to be top-up gifts, or to be offered at Christmas parties or events. Referral partners who use our service throughout the year are invited to submit a referral and we will provide as many bundles as the support we receive allows.
Our priority is the help families in Surrey and Croydon.
We know that choice is important in some referrals, and for these requests we encourage our referral partners to click on the Truly Giving link. They will ask for the age, gender, and interests of the child, and match them with a donor who provides a gift tailored to the child’s wishes. The gifts will all be delivered to the Stripey Stork offices in Redhill so can be collected or delivered from there.
The idea behind Santa Stork has always been supporting those families who are most in need, so we are asking you to use your judgement to make sure families meet this criteria. If the children are unlikely to receive any other Christmas presents, then please add them to your list. If Santa Stork presents are a top-up to other gifts, then Santa Stork may not be appropriate. We really want to focus on those who would potentially have a present-less Christmas if it weren’t for this support.
There are no geographical restrictions, but please consider gifts need to be collected from Redhill, Surrey. We will be prioritising referrals who use our service all year round and those who were reliant on Santa Stork last year.
As the families are anonymous to us, we have no way of knowing any duplications. We kindly ask that you check with your colleagues, the parents/carers and any other possible support workers whether they have already been referred. In previous years we received feedback that sometimes two or more present bundles where given to the same family from different referral sources, so it is very important that you check.
We encourage all siblings up to the age of 18 to be included in your order, as we wouldn’t want any child to be without opening a present on Christmas Day.
There is no option to request parent/carer gifts when submitting your gift order, as the focus is on ensuring we have sufficient funds for the children. However, we do realise how appreciated this can be so a limited number of parent/carer gifts will be available on collection – please speak to one of our elves.
We are not setting a final deadline for making requests as both funding and stock are limited. Requests will be dealt with on a first come, first served basis so we advise submitting your request as soon as possible as we may reach a point where we are unable to fulfil the later requests.
We do understand that your caseload can change quickly and we will do our very best to fulfil any late requests, but this cannot be guaranteed.
You will need to complete another order spreadsheet for the additional request(s), but please indicate when emailing your completed spreadsheet that this is in addition to your existing order to avoid confusion.
We are always quick to reply with confirmation that your order has been received. If you haven’t heard within 2 working days, please check your spam folder and then contact santa@stripeystork.org.uk so we can investigate.
Please liaise with your colleagues to avoid duplications (e.g. one family being referred more than once). Please complete and send your own spreadsheet for the families on your caseload and we will coordinate collections/deliveries, grouping them by organisation/location as much as possible. We will work with you on what the best option is for you and your team.
We will certainly do our best to fulfil every order, but there are no guarantees with higher costs and limited funding. It’s impossible to know exactly how many requests in total we’ll receive each year. Our Santa Stork aim remains the same, to make Christmas special for all the families referred to us and we’ll be working hard to make this happen but we would ask that you get your requests in as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
This is only an issue if the child is under 3 and a toy from an older age category is chosen, due to safety concerns. If this happens then a suitable alternative will be chosen by us.
We have included a great assortment of gifts for each age category, but if there is something very specific which one of your supported children would like and this is priced between £10-£20, then please indicate what this is in the designated field in the order spreadsheet.
Please use the age categories set out in the catalogue as a guide. We also encourage you to consult the parents/carers with the available options. If the gift request column is left blank in the order spreadsheet, then the project team will choose a suitable gift.
Yes, we know how children love a stocking filler to complement their main gift. For younger children this is usually an age-appropriate book, with all children aged 4 and above receiving Christmas themed chocolate.
We are following the same collection process as last year, where we ask you to book a convenient collection slot before you place your referral (a bit like your online supermarket shop!). Please visit https://signup.com/go/wfegkxJ to book your slot.
You will be able to collect your order from our dedicated Santa Stork HQ at our secondary location in Raven House – 29 Linkfield Lane, Redhill, Surrey, RH1 1SS. For directions see the below FAQ ‘What are the instructions for collecting from Raven House in Redhill?’.
If you are unable to collect for whatever reason, please let us know and we will try and make arrangements for delivery. We have a few volunteers who have offered to deliver gifts locally and a few of our corporate partners have kindly loaned us the use of their van and drivers for larger loads.
For the first year, our Santa Stork HQ is based at our secondary location in Raven House – 29 Linkfield Lane, Redhill, Surrey, RH1 1SS.
As you drive in, turn left and there are limited parking spaces available at the front of the building (look out for the Stripey Stork visitor bays at the end). When you arrive, the Stripey Stork entrance is via the left hand set of reception doors, you’ll see our poster in the window. Please ring the bell at the front door and one of our elves will greet you.
Please email us as soon as possible at santa@stripeystork.org.uk if you are not going to make your pre-booked collection slot, quoting your Santa Stork reference number provided in your confirmation email. This means we can rearrange (or we may be able to arrange delivery instead), whilst freeing up your slot. With funds so limited, if gifts remain uncollected and we are unable to reach you we will make these available to other referral partners.
We recommend emptying your boot and back seat before collecting your gifts as they take up a surprising amount of room and they don’t stack well. Gift bags vary in size but as a guide, 35 gifts take up the boot and back seat of a Ford Focus, and that’s without putting the seats down.
We will be providing each family’s gift bundle with wrapping paper and tape so the parents can wrap the presents and feel more involved. You are of course welcome to wrap the presents for the family if you think this will be their preference.
You will receive one gift bag per family containing all gifts, stocking fillers, wrapping paper and tape. Each gift bag will have a label listing each child’s age, gender, gift and any batteries included.
You will also receive a sheet of paper containing all details of your referral, broken down into family groups. When you make the referral we strongly advise you to assign your own reference to each of the families/members to make this easier for you to identify.
UK wide) Your nearest baby bank: https://stripeystork.org.uk/babybanks/
(UK wide) Salvation Army centres: https://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/christmas-present-appeal
(Horley, Crawley, East Grinstead) Greenaway Foundation: https://greenawayfoundation.org/
(Crawley/Sussex/Kent) Golden Lion Community Trust: https://glct.org.uk/
(Surrey) Smiles4Smiles: https://www.facebook.com/Smiles2Smiles
51a Albert Road North
Reigate
Surrey
RH2 9EL
Registered as a charity in England and Wales 1161613
Our focus is the Surrey region and bordering areas. If you are in a different region, see map of UK baby banks to find one near you.
