View from V2 - It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like… Toy Appeal Season! - By Jasmine Wickens

Well, here we are; the Christmas season is upon us once again. I suppose, technically, it has been for some time if you count from when you first saw an advent calendar in the shops. Quite frankly, it’s still ridiculous that you can buy baubles and chocolate coins when it’s 25 degrees outside. 

I call it Christmas as soon as Bonfire Night is over – that’s the only excuse I need to put up a Christmas tree and start exclusively lighting my home with fairy lights and glowing ornaments. There’s something about filling up your living space with these seasonal sparkles that makes everything feel so much cosier, which, with how quickly the temperature dropped last week, is a welcome feeling.

However, we’re all feeling the pinch this Christmas. We say it every year, as everything somehow seems to get more expensive. Food seems to be taking up a higher percentage of our salaries than ever before, so when you start thinking about making a Christmas roast, trimmings and all, it’s looking more like chicken than turkey as the centrepiece (I think chicken tastes better anyway!).

For some families, the hardest part is when the kids give you their list for Santa, and you take one look at it and are filled with dread, as all you see are pound signs on the paper. More and more families are struggling to afford toys and games for their children, and it isn’t fair. That’s why V2 try and do something about it, each year.

We have just launched our annual Toy Appeal with Ashton Care Group, something that everyone at V2 agrees is the most heartwarming and joyful campaign that we do all year. We collect toys from around the local area and provide them to deserving beneficiaries to ensure no child goes without a toy on Christmas morning. 

You’ll find that when you pop into participating local businesses and shops in the area, there’s a collection point for our appeal. Please do pop an extra toy in your weekly shop and drop it off at one of our collection points. Whilst it may be just £10 to you, that could be a whole Christmas for a child who unfortunately wasn't going to receive anything at all. 

Not near a collection point? Come and drop it off at the V2 office and get the chance to say hello to us in the process (that’s definitely a bonus… right?). 

We are so thankful for such wonderful listeners who, year on year, are so generous with their donations. It makes such a massive difference to the children, and hearing the stories from the volunteers from the charities that pick these toys up are both heartbreaking and heartwarming all at the same time. 

So, a very big thank you in advance, and let’s make this Christmas a magical one for those who really do deserve it.