{"id":189904,"date":"2025-12-18T11:46:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T11:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/189904\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T11:46:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T11:46:15","slug":"canterbury-christmas-charity-ensures-gifts-for-hundreds-of-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/189904\/","title":{"rendered":"Canterbury Christmas charity ensures gifts for hundreds of children"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s started to ingrain team building and teaching your kids about gifting and that everybody\u2019s not got the same as you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those not wanting to be paired can also become \u201cSprinkle Elves\u201d to help fill present gaps, or team up with friends or work colleagues to buy presents as a group. <\/p>\n

\"ElfElf in the Village pairs volunteers with a child or family to buy Christmas presents for. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

While It Takes A Village provides baby and toddler bundles to families year-round, it\u2019s the third year it has run Elf in the Village.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all started three years ago when we were approached by a couple of people asking if they could help at Christmas,\u201d Petterd said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the first year, we were able to help 100 children; this year, we have had over 300 elves help over 600 children with Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there is still a call for more elves to get involved this year<\/a>, with many families still on a waitlist. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are literally getting between five to 10 phone calls, emails, texts every day asking for help because there\u2019s just so many families out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment, we\u2019re putting them on a wait list because we just don\u2019t want to give somebody hope that we can give them something without being able to follow through. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s a really big thing – is we don\u2019t want to overcommit to these families and not be able to deliver them the Christmas magic and then let them down.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would love any more elves so that we can help more families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Petterd said there are many reasons a child or family needs extra support during the holiday season. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt can go from our low-income families who are working two jobs to some people that have just had absolutely horrible years,\u201d Petterd said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of need. We see a lot of low-income families, families that are struggling just to survive every single day.<\/p>\n

\u201cChristmas just adds that extra pressure. A lot tend to either go into debt or just not do Christmas at all because they are unable to afford it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe magic of Christmas is something that the kids see around them but sadly wouldn\u2019t be able to have if [Elf in the Village] didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ItIt Takes A Village director Dani Petterd said there are many reasons why a child or their family needs support. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Petterd highlighted that all presents are donated unwrapped, recognising the special experience parents get when gifting the presents to their children.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big thing for us is making sure that the parents have that dignity and that care around them to make sure that they can still be involved in the Christmas magic,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd also knowing what your kids are getting is a big thing as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are able to know it before, and feel excited about those things that are coming, and getting ready for Santa and all that kind of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s started to ingrain team building and teaching your kids about gifting and that everybody\u2019s not got the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8126,1977,1061,35595,18399,50109,118833,89278,14768,2082,118834,54101,78933,24176,10005,6929,111,43,139,69,1118,49532,49493,102,1339,6730],"class_list":["post-189904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-canterbury","tag-charity","tag-children","tag-childs","tag-christmas","tag-donors","tag-ensures","tag-ensuring","tag-every","tag-for","tag-fulfilled","tag-generous","tag-gifts","tag-hundreds","tag-list","tag-matching","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-otherwise","tag-wish","tag-with","tag-without","tag-would"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}