23/10/2026
How a Small Charity Gives 300+ Families a Magical Christmas
Thirteen years ago, four women in Burgess Hill had a simple idea: make sure no child in their community woke up to an empty Christmas morning.
They had no funding, no premises, and no experience running a charity. What they had was a deep knowledge of their community, a fierce determination, and a 10-foot Christmas tree.
That tree became the Giving Tree. And those four women became Christmas Wishes.
The Problem They Set Out to Solve
Toy poverty is rarely talked about, but it's more common than most people realise. In towns and villages across West Sussex — including Burgess Hill, Hassocks, and Hurstpierpoint — there are families for whom buying Christmas presents simply isn't possible.
These aren't families who are struggling to choose between a PlayStation and a bicycle. These are families where the choice is between heating the house and buying food. Families where a single parent is working two jobs and still can't make ends meet. Families who have fallen on hard times through illness, redundancy, or circumstances beyond their control.
For the children in these families, Christmas morning can be a painful reminder of what they don't have.
Christmas Wishes was founded to change that.
How the Charity Works
The model is beautifully simple. Each year, from October to late November, Christmas Wishes runs its Toy Appeal — collecting new, unwrapped gifts from the local community through the Giving Tree at 197 Maple Drive, Burgess Hill, and through an Amazon Wish List for those who can't donate in person.
Families in need are referred to the charity by local support services: food banks, social workers, schools, and community organisations who know which households are struggling most. This means the gifts go to the families who need them most, not just those who know to ask.
In the weeks before Christmas, a team of volunteers sorts, wraps, and labels every gift — matching toys to children by age and interest wherever possible. Then, in the days before Christmas, the gifts are hand-delivered to each family's door.
No vouchers. No gift cards. Real toys, wrapped with care, delivered by people who live in the same streets.
The Numbers Behind the Magic
The scale of what Christmas Wishes achieves is remarkable for a charity with no paid staff and no permanent premises:
300+ families supported every year
8,000+ gifts delivered since the charity began in 2013
13 consecutive years of operation, through a pandemic and everything else
Entirely volunteer-run — every penny donated goes directly to the cause
These numbers represent real children. Real Christmas mornings. Real moments of joy that wouldn't have happened without the generosity of the local community.
Thirteen years ago, 2 women in Burgess Hill had a simple idea: make sure no child in their community woke up to an empty Christmas morning.
They had no funding, no premises, and no experience running a charity. What they had was a deep knowledge of their community, a fierce determination, and a 10-foot Christmas tree.
That tree became the Giving Tree. And those 2 women became Christmas Wishes.
The Problem They Set Out to Solve
Toy poverty is rarely talked about, but it's more common than most people realise. In towns and villages across West Sussex — including Burgess Hill, Hassocks, and Hurstpierpoint — there are families for whom buying Christmas presents simply isn't possible.
These aren't families who are struggling to choose between a PlayStation and a bicycle. These are families where the choice is between heating the house and buying food. Families where a single parent is working two jobs and still can't make ends meet. Families who have fallen on hard times through illness, redundancy, or circumstances beyond their control.
For the children in these families, Christmas morning can be a painful reminder of what they don't have.
Christmas Wishes was founded to change that.
How the Charity Works
The model is beautifully simple. Each year, from October to late November, Christmas Wishes runs its Toy Appeal — collecting new, unwrapped gifts from the local community through the Giving Tree at 197 Maple Drive, Burgess Hill, and through an Amazon Wish List for those who can't donate in person.
Families in need are referred to the charity by local support services: food banks, social workers, schools, and community organisations who know which households are struggling most. This means the gifts go to the families who need them most, not just those who know to ask.
In the weeks before Christmas, a team of volunteers sorts, wraps, and labels every gift — matching toys to children by age and interest wherever possible. Then, in the days before Christmas, the gifts are hand-delivered to each family's door.
No vouchers. No gift cards. Real toys, wrapped with care, delivered by people who live in the same streets.
The Numbers Behind the Magic
The scale of what Christmas Wishes achieves is remarkable for a charity with no paid staff and no permanent premises:
300+ families supported every year
8,000+ gifts delivered since the charity began in 2013
13 consecutive years of operation, through a pandemic and everything else
Entirely volunteer-run — every penny donated goes directly to the cause
These numbers represent real children. Real Christmas mornings. Real moments of joy that wouldn't have happened without the generosity of the local community.
