‘Delivering joy’ is an initiative by the Dunelm store chain that encourages their customers to donate gifts to make sure ‘no one goes without a gift this Christmas’.
Each Dunelm store has a Christmas tree placed near the front of the store with multiple gift tags placed on it like ornaments. Donors take a tag and buy a suitable present.
On the tag it states whether the person receiving the gift is a boy or girl, their age and what they would like to receive. Examples include “Female, Age 6, a barbie doll” or “Male, Age 16, Xbox vouchers”.
MerseyNewsLive spoke to Holly and Emma who work in Dunelm’s Garston Store, and they told us how this has been the campaign’s best year yet: “Last year we took 617 gifts, this year already, we’re already up to 750 at least and we’ve still not even got half the tags back.
“We ended up having to contact more charities and duplicate tags as well to give out to more disadvantaged children because we just didn’t expect it to take off that much”.
They said the popularity through social media apps such as TikTok has been a massive help in this year’s success, adding that the app ‘definitely had the most impact this year’.
With the presents beginning to be delivered, the generosity of the public will begin to have its impact on those less fortunate this festive season.
Additional reporting by Romanie Smith
Featured image (c) Jade Thorold