This winter, many families are feeling the pressure as they struggle to afford the essentials they need for their family. With energy bills going up, food prices climbing, and wages not always keeping up, it can feel harder to cover all the basics like clothing and toiletries. On top of that, Christmas brings extra pressure, with the added costs of gifts, festive meals, and celebrations.
At Stripey Stork, this Christmas, we are balancing the need for families to keep warm this winter with the joy of a Christmas gift. As in previous years, we need your help to do this. Take a look below at how you can support families in our community this Christmas.
Our online shop is a great way to spread some joy this Christmas. You will have the chance to buy an age-appropriate Stripey Stork bundle for a child this Christmas. Each bundle will include items like a blanket, books, toiletries and chocolate coins.
Shop our Amazon wish list and buy a gift for a child this Christmas. Our referral partners will have the opportunity to add an age-appropriate Christmas gift to one of our Stripey Stork bundles. These brand new gifts will come from donations we receive from the community. This approach will ensure that each child has a wonderful bundle of items on Christmas morning.
We are taking part in The Big Give’s Christmas Challenge – a matched funding campaign to raise funds. We are focussing on raising money so that we can provide more warm places to sleep for children in 2025. You’ll be able to donate to our Big Give Christmas Challenge between 3rd and 10th December. If we hit our target then every penny raised will be doubled.
The great thing about Santa Stork is that you can do everything without needing to leave your home! With the funds you pledge, the Santa Stork project team will order the gifts from Toy Barnhaus and distribute them via the referral partners who made the request. You don’t need to worry about taking delivery of items at your home address and then having to drop them off with us.
We have successfully used our Santa shop for a few years now, it contains a great selection of gifts for every age range and these are the gifts that the children/families referred to us have specifically asked for. We encourage you to sit down with your child and choose a gift. Think about the toys they love or loved playing with – if they enjoyed them there’s a good chance someone else will love them too. As a thank you, you’ll receive a link to a Santa Stork certificate in your confirmation email which can be printed, filled in with your child’s name and presented to them.
Alternatively, we are collecting Christmas themed chocolate for stocking fillers, as well as new toiletry gifts and Lego sets for those who prefer to give a physical gift. There are various drop-off points throughout Surrey.
The virtual Santa Shop has replaced the Amazon wish list option of buying a gift, this is the way we have been operating for a few years now. We listened to your feedback, that you would prefer a local option – our Santa Shop is supporting an established local business that employs local people. This model also enables us to better manage stock as we can now order gifts as and when requests come in and distribute them throughout the weeks leading up to Christmas.
We’re always so grateful when companies want to get involved – what a great alternative to Secret Santa! We would encourage you to create your own fundraising page for the campaign. This is really easy to do, please email partnerships@stripeystork.org.uk for more information or to discuss other ways in which you can collectively support Santa Stork.
Your donation will go into a gift buying fund which will be used to buy presents as and when the orders are placed by our referral partners. This way we can ensure every child receives the gift which has been chosen for them, from the list of popular gifts in Santa’s Shop. It means we can better manage stock and prevents the need for large storage facilities. Rest assured that your donation will be used to make a child’s Christmas by contributing to their special gift.
There is the option to add multiples of £5 at checkout. This is the cost of a gift for a parent/carer or two selection boxes. There is also the option to make an online donation to the campaign’s appeal page – see the ‘Donate’ link above.
Yes, if you are a UK tax payer then please do and we’ll be able to claim an extra 25% on you donation. Just tick the gift aid checkbox at checkout, fill in your details and we’ll do the rest!
A small transactional fee will be deducted from your donation; because we are a charity this is a discounted rate. If paying via the debit/credit payment option (Stripe), this is 20p per transaction, plus 1.2% for UK cards or 2.9% for non-UK cards. This is our preference as the fees are slightly lower, however you can also choose to use Paypal which is 20p per transaction, plus a 1.4% variable fee.
This is a great idea, they’ll love that you were thinking of others as well as them! In the confirmation email, which you’ll receive after checkout, there is a link to a certificate designed just for this which you’ll be able to download and give to them.
Not at all, in fact Toy Barnhaus have generously agreed to price match with other high street stores as well as offering an additional 10% discount and free delivery. This enables us to make the best use of our funds.
Wherever possible we will be purchasing gifts from Toy Barnhaus. However, for some gifts, notably teenagers, there are less options so we may need to source elsewhere.
You can pledge right up until we close the shop, so if the shop’s open, so are we! We always have last minute, urgent requests to fulfil so we’re busy right up until Christmas.
This year we are again spreading the distribution of gifts over November and December. Starting early allows plenty of time for gifts to be delivered to the families, but working up until Christmas means we can fulfil last minute, urgent requests.
The Santa shop started in response to Covid 19. However, feedback from our supporters is that they really like it as it’s a convenient way to support the campaign, as well being an efficient way for us to manage the process. So we would kindly ask that you buy a gift from the Santa shop instead of bringing physical donations.
However, we are collecting Christmas themed chocolate for stocking fillers, as well as new toiletry gifts and Lego sets for those who prefer to give a physical gift. There are various drop-off points throughout Surrey.
Thank you for asking for help. At Stripey Stork we take referrals from the health professionals who support local families – health visitors, schools, social workers and Family Centres. If you require extra help this Christmas, please speak to your support worker or health professional who will be able to make a referral on your behalf. They will need to email santa@stripeystork.org.uk for instructions on how to do this. This referral process ensures that gifts are given to those who really need them.
You can also take a look at our Cost of Living area on our website, which is a directory of different types of help for families who are struggling.
If you are part of a local community group, school or business, we’d love to hear from you. Or maybe you’d like to rally your friends and family together to collectively help? There’s plenty more ways to support Santa Stork – please email partnerships@stripeystork.org.uk to find out more.
Please email elves@stripeystork.org.uk to express your interest and find out more information about what’s involved.
We are grateful to the following organisations for their support with part-funding Santa Stork 2023…
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.
