******************Important thread - please read - EVERYONE********************

[soapbox]

OK!

I'm distressed reading about those of you who are worried sick about Christmas and having no money to buy things for your children!

Rather than sit of my ample backside and do nothing I have the following proposal to make.

Those of you who have old toys/gifts which are in good condition, or who are willing to buy a new gift for a child can register your contributions with me.

Those of you who are down on your uppers can send me your details - name, address, age and gender of children, what kind of things they like!

Those lovely MN who will send me Christmassy things will be matched up with those people who would like a bit of a hand with Christmas.

Those giving pressies will wrap the pressie and label it 'To XXX from Santa', and then send it to the address given to them.

If people receiving presents want to remain anonymous then I can ask people to send their contributions to me, and I will forward them onto the gift receiver, I will bear the postage cost of the onwards posting!

If people want to help, but have no toys etc to do so, then a small amount on a gift voucher for woolies, argos or the like can be sent instead!

Please post on this thread whether you think it is a winger - if we get at least 10 givers and 10 receivers then I will go ahead with it, and will post my email address to start the ball rolling!

Receivors must be regular MNetters, in case we are deluged from other sites

So it is over to you guys - good idea or not???

soapbox, i have just re-read your original thread, did u ever expect this to get this big??

Another BIG thank you to GLTC! What a wonderful company.

just caught up on this. thank you GLTC, you are incredibly generous and really will be making some families xmas's

what part of ireland are you going to be in laudaud?

ooh ooh can't wait to get my receivers e-mail

Feels so EXCITING being able to do this and the ds's are helping (wrapping etc) as its a wonderful lesson for them too.

What a lovely, lovely idea! Can I contribute... am bit of a lurker generally..... Will email you, have got girls party clothes (9-10) and lego etc.

laudaud - thanks for that link. I was wondering how to know which vouchers to get for someone but that's a much better way of doing it!

you know, i really think it would be better to send it unwrapped (paper etc enclosed as well) so the mum can distribute the gifts as she sees fit. and also, so she can say they are from whomever she wants. might be that they want to label them differently. just a thought

I would agree- also, whilst i am 100% certain it won't happen there is a misucule potential for abuse with these things and Mum might prefer to check gifts forst

ok. well, will email soapy. wonder what anyone else thinks. i guess its not just about the kids getting some nice presents, but allowing the parents to feel supported. they might want/need to give them from mummy/daddy. which they would be.

Soapy - on the offchance that there are more 'givers' than 'receivers', maybe someone could nominate a charity that the leftovers could be sent to?
I was thinking that maybe a women's refuge would be a nice idea, but (thankfully) don't know of any.

If you send presents wrapped, then Mum could just unwrap them if she wanted to - I know I wouldn't be insulted.

SOAPY I HAVE EMAILED YOU A LIST OF WHAT I AM OFFERING.

soapy I've posted my stuff off and I've asked the lovely lady to let you know that it arrived safely - is that possible?

I've not included my name - just from a mumsnetter

Tis true that giving can be better than receiving

I agree unwrapped is best, so parents can give them as from themselves. Also, wrapping your kids pressies is the fun bit! MerryChristmaFairy I used to work at a womens refuge, the kids would get about 2 bin bags of pressies each, from various charities and wellwishers! Is a great idea, but maybe there is a charity less well known, that would need pressies more? Anyone any ideas?

ImaVeryMerryChristmasFairy - there are more givers than receivers, but I think I will manage to spread things around

At work today - so nothing much going on right now- will be working late too, so probably no more matching until tomorrow now

RE wrapping - I will leave it up to you. But if you do not wrap, I think the suggestion of putting some wrapping paper in and a roll of tape is a lovely one

and bump again

I've emailed you soapy with soime things to give and I can help with deliveries in the NE.

More good news - We asked Nicola who runs Great Expectations if she could help out and she said she'd be delighted to - she's offered either a couple of really big gifts (eg treehouse) or lots of smaller ones. We've put Soapbox in touch. (By the way she'll usually give Mumsnetters a discount if you order over the phone).
Thanks Nicola!

THANK YOU NICOLA!!

Well done MNHQ

YOU ARE A STAR SOAPY xxx

cant believe how lovely people are

wow, thats fantastic!! this just gets better!
I am still waiting patiently to be matched to someone.

Fab news - thank you Nicola.

corr - not sure tbh, I think we'd need to do something offline thou lol. we'll need to sort something out - perhaps via MNHQ possibly? (justine any thoughts on that one?)

I think i'll not wrap any gifts and get some nice paper/tags etc to go in the parcel as then mum will know what she has iycwim.

fabby news as well about GE coming onboard with us all

Munz - will you mail us direct - [email protected] - because I'm a bit slow and I've no idea what you're on about .

Wow GE