Salvation army Christmas present appeal

[Vienna]

Every year the SA do a Christmas present appeal and give out toys and gifts to the children of underprivilaged families, those living in homeless B and B , those in Crisis centres or womens refuges etc etc.
Many SA churches ( citadels) have a collections and in some areas the local asda or Argos collect on their behalf too. When I worked for the SA the one age group which tended to be forgotten were the young teens so if anybody has new and unused toiletries, perfume, makeup, costume jewellery , bags, purses, scarves, hair accessories or anything new and suitable then if you click on the link below it will tell you if you have a collection centre near you. Teenage boys also tend to be forgotten so anything suitable for 13 to 16 year old boys are always sought after too. The gifts need to be unwrapped so the SA officers can see who and which age group it would be suitable for.
From my own experience working with my local christmas appeal we tended to be inundated with cuddly toys for very young children but had a great shortage of board games, books, craft items and things which could be used without use of a tv or computer. Many families are literally living in one room and without such things. Happy giving and every gift is greatly appreciated.
https://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/christmas-present-appeal

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

I loved it when the SA came around singing carols but it has been years since that has happened here really miss it.

Great respect to them for their work, unlike many more charities who have political agendas or even worse overseas abuse.

 

[Vienna]

I loved it when the SA came around singing carols but it has been years since that has happened here really miss it.

Great respect to them for their work, unlike many more charities who have political agendas or even worse overseas abuse.

Yes it`s sad to see the demise of the carolers. I think the SA like many churches are struggling to keep up their membership. The old guard are dying off and many of the younger generation don`t want to be bothered. Plus it`s so expensive to upkeep their churches so quite a few have closed down or been sold off. I`m not a salvationist but I worked in one of their Social Services centres for 13 years and we had a very close connection to the citadel which was just around the corner so we became involved in their Christmas activities.
At one time their orphanages, old peoples homes, hostels etc could be run by SA officers and lay members but as time passed they had to employ more civilian staff like me because they needed to be seen to have people with the right qualifications and skills. Of course that was very expensive so many places closed down or were taken over by local councils or outside agencies. I`m afraid the SA quite often failed to move with the times and it was their downfall but thankfully they still do good work and their bands and tin rattler will be out in force in the coming weeks. Their Christmas gift collections does good work and many people give up their spare time to sort, wrap and distribute the gifts which people have donated.

 

[Lemonpop]

I loved it when the SA came around singing carols but it has been years since that has happened here really miss it.

Great respect to them for their work, unlike many more charities who have political agendas or even worse overseas abuse.

Were we used to live the lady at the top of our road was in the SA and Christmas eve the band always came round. Too many charities pay exorbitant sums of money to their CEO's. I am sure there must be plenty of retired people with experience that could do the job and just claim reasonable expenses. A friend of ours was in Guinea, West Africa some years ago and on market day there were loads of Oxfam boxes that people were selling the goods from. Never given anything to Oxfam since then.