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Sefton Council hosted its very first Christmas events over the festive period for cared for children and care experienced young people in partnership with Waterloo Community Centre and the Plaza Community Cinema.

Care experienced young people were invited to a full Christmas experience including Christmas dinner, quizzes and games, great raffle prizes and a personalised gift bought for them by businesses signed up to our Caring Business Charter.

The event saw a special guest performance by Francis Doran, lead singer of Red Rum Club, a local band fresh from their latest US tour!

Our cared for children were invited for a movie night at The Plaza where they joined some of our staff to watch Matilda: The Musical and went home with a goody bag of sweets and treats and a book token ready to spend on a new read for the new year!

The feedback so far has been positive and Sefton are keen to keep events like these going.

“Thank you to everyone involved for a lovely night, the children really enjoyed it”

“Thank you so much to you and everyone who helped to organise last night. My children had a fabulous time and certainly enjoyed their goodies. Trip to town Saturday to spend their tokens!”

Cllr Mhairi Doyle, Cabinet Member for Children’s Social Care said:

“I am thrilled to see us celebrating Christmas with our children and young people this year.

“Some of these young people may have been spending Christmas alone so having this Christmas experience to eat, drink and take home a haul of presents will have definitely made their festive period a lot brighter.

 “We are so grateful to community groups and our Caring Business Charter signatories for their help in pulling these events together, making donations and ultimately delivering a great bit of festive fun to our children and young people.”

This event was a first for Sefton Council who are keen to increase engagement with young people and use their local influence to create great experience for all the children they work with.

As 2022 came to a close, hundreds of people and scores of businesses across Sefton demonstrated their kindness and community spirit by contributing to the Mayor’s Christmas Toy Appeal.

Many families in Sefton were anxious about Christmas this year, especially due to cost of living pressures but thanks to the incredibly generous support of individuals and organisations across the Borough, children did not miss out on the special magic of the festive season.

Hundreds of pounds was raised through online donations so that volunteers could purchase gifts for children of all ages. Businesses donated thousands of pounds worth of toys as well as hosting drop off points for their staff and Cllrs donated thousands of pounds to our fund.

The generosity of the Sefton community shone through this year with many families worried about Christmas themselves but still making a donation to the appeal.

Thousands of items, ranging from giant teddy bears to junior science kits and scooters to toiletries were also donated meaning over 500 families received gifts to open on Christmas Day.

Cllr Clare Louise Carragher, the Mayor of Sefton, said:

“I have been blown away by the sheer amount of donations we have seen for our Toy Appeal. When times are tough, our community really pulls together and this year has been our best Toy Appeal yet!

I want to give a personal thank you to everyone who donated to our appeal, every single donation made this year has gone some way to ensuring no child went without a gift this Christmas.”

The Mayor of Sefton is writing personal letters of thanks to those across Sefton who went the extra mile to support the initiative and gave time, money and energy to give our campaign a boost.

Our ‘12 Days of Community’ campaign shone a spotlight on those businesses, community groups and people who played a big role in the success of our Toy Appeal this year and without the donations from across a community the Toy Appeal wouldn’t be the fantastic initiative it is.

Cllr Carragher added:

“For many of our families across Sefton, Christmas can be a time of real pressure and hardship and the incredible gestures of kindness and self-sacrifice from people right across our Borough has been inspiring.”