Be a Santa 2024
We are so excited to get started on our favourite community event of the year, Be a Santa!
This year we will be running the event from Monday 4th November to Friday 6th December and hope to collect enough gift donations to give to our selected charities/companies and Christmas events.
If you haven’t heard of Be a Santa before, here’s the lowdown: Each year we collect gift donations from members of the public to wrap and distribute to lonely, isolated older people in the community who may not be seeing anyone this Christmas, or even receiving any cards or gifts.
It is a lovely gesture, and so many people in our community get on board with it each year. There are so many older people in our area who do not have friends or family to spend their day with and may not even get to speak to another person on Christmas Day. We want to spread some Christmas cheer to those in need of it and let them know their community is thinking of them. This message really resonates with the public and we get a lot of engagement with the scheme.
Last year, through the ‘Be a Santa’ initiative, Home Instead managed to donate gift parcels to over 200 lonely and isolated members of the community across Burnham on Sea, Highbridge, Weston super Mare and Clevedon. We worked with groups including Community Meals on Wheels, Re-engage charity, and 3 individually organised Christmas Lunches for lonely seniors. We always feel so emotional and in awe of people’s kindness and generosity when we run this scheme, and we know the people who receive the gifts really appreciate the gesture.
To donate a gift to this year’s scheme, the drop off point is at our Office, 202 Worle High Street. Some ideas of gifts we are looking to collect include blankets, books, boxes of biscuits or chocolates, puzzles and toiletries. Donations must be made before the 6th of December.
“Thank you to everyone in the community who has supported this event previously. Your donations really do make such a difference to the happiness of others and have always been extremely well received.” – Jenny Morton, Registered Care Manager.
