Mission Christmas and COVID-19

We've had to make some changes this year - please read on to find out how your business can still support the appeal

In light of COVID-19 we’ve had to make some changes to Mission Christmas this year, with the need for social distancing to ensure that our team, volunteers, beneficiaries and donors are kept safe.

In previous years we’ve asked as many businesses as possible to collect for us, but to deliver the appeal safely this year we’ve had to limit the number of public-facing gift drop-off points.

This will help us to manage the delivery of gifts into our Mission HQ to be sorted by a much-reduced team of volunteers, due to the restrictions imposed by social distancing. It also means we can manage the impact on the appeal if the government implement tighter regulations or a full lockdown.

We need your support more than ever

There are so many other ways for you to support us this year. Most of our events earlier in the year were cancelled, and we’re facing new costs to purchase items such as PPE.

A cash donation to the appeal would enable us to buy gifts where donations from the public fall short or where we need specialist items for disabled children. We have relationships with suppliers so we can buy in bulk at reduced cost. These gifts are then delivered directly to Mission HQ, limiting the amount of contact needed to process them.

Would you be up for organising a raffle, a challenge, or donating a portion of your sales to Mission Christmas? You could add a pound on the bill or donate a percentage from a specific item sold. If this sounds like something you could do please let us know and we’ll help promote it.

If you have a showroom, a shop window, or a wall you could display one of our interactive posters featuring a QR code that people can scan with their smartphone to donate.

Whilst we’re restricting the number of public facing drop-off points, if you’re a workplace and would like to collect gifts internally that would be amazing! We just ask that you deliver them to Mission HQ as early as possible and ideally by Friday 11th December to give our reduced team more time to sort and distribute them.

Mission Christmas will be more important than ever this year. COVID-19 is directly affecting unemployment levels and household incomes, pushing many more families into poverty this winter. Christmas could be a luxury that they simply can’t afford, but our mission is still to ensure that every child receives a gift from Santa on Christmas Day.

Please get in touch and register your support online here to see how we can keep working together!