How to donate to the 2024 WalesOnline Christmas appeal

Christmas is a time for fun, joy, sharing and giving. But for people up and down Wales, it's harder than ever to enjoy Christmas or afford gifts and treats.

Up and down the country, parents and carers are already beginning to worry about finding the money to pay for gifts to bring smiles to their children's faces. Times are incredibly hard, for so many people, but we want to try ease that burden and stress and give the best gift in the world - a smile on a kid's face on Christmas Day.

Last year, we ran a Christmas appeal with Canolfan Pentre, a charity in the Rhondda valley. Every year they give out Christmas presents to local children, via schools, support workers or direct requests, but the number of presents they are being asked for is going up, and their funding is going down.

READ MORE: 'They wake on Christmas morning with nothing, they don't get Christmas dinner, just a pack of crisps'

The requests from local schools, support and social workers, came earlier than ever this year with the first schools contacting the charity for help in September.

In 2023, thanks to the support of people up and down Wales, we were able to hand over more than 800 gifts. You can read that here. A key part of the scheme is that the presents were given to families discreetly, so they could wrap them up and put them under their own Christmas tree, or in their own homes, so no parent or carer felt stigmatised.

We also, thanks to you, donated them items of food, toiletry and household items, for the "top up shop" at the centre. Available to anyone who needs it to ensure no-one is left with empty cupboards. People pay a nominal fee to remove the risk they will not ask for help because they don't want to accept charity. The shop was filled, several times over, through your donations.

It is almost impossible to explain the difference your generosity made, and the staff and volunteers at Canolfan Pentre were able to make sure those who really needed help with gifts, or the basics many of us take for granted, got to those who needed them.

The campaign is back again and we want to give even more than last year.

Ways you can donate:

1. Buy an item from our Amazon wishlist and have it sent directly to us. You can access the list here.

2. Bring any items - new, unopened, and if food, in date, to the WalesOnline office at 6 Park Street, Cardiff, CF10 1XR, Monday to Friday 8am until 6pm.

We will then give the items to the staff at Canolfan Pentre to distribute.

Thankyou, diolch yn fawr, in advance. Let's make it the biggest year yet.