Toys and Teens Appeal

The 2025 Toys and Teens Christmas Gift Appeal is now complete! We successfully provided a selection of presents for 2,676 children living in this area who would otherwise be unlikely to receive anything for Christmas. 
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Huge thanks to everyone who got involved through donations, volunteering, being a donation point, organising a collection or in any other way.

Read more about the 2025 Toys and Teens Appeal on our blog.

We start collecting again in October 2026 - find out more about our Appeal below.

What is the Toys and Teens Appeal?

  • We ask the people of Reading and the surrounding district to donate toys and gifts to children in the area who would otherwise be unlikely to receive any Christmas presents from their parents or elsewhere.
  • ​We ask organisations that work with these children on a day to day basis to request toys and gifts from the Appeal.
  • The donated toys and gifts are collected from the various public donation points scattered around the area as well as from collections at various businesses, schools and places of worship. They are taken to a church hall in Reading during a week in early December.
  • The tens of thousands of donations are each checked, sorted and packed in black sacks. Each sack will contain a selection of gifts for children of a particular age range.
  • The sacks are then delivered to the requesting organisation who will distribute the gifts to the families.
  • The parents (or Santa!) can then give the children the gifts on Christmas morning.
  • We aim to provide each child with 4 to 8 gifts.
  • This project runs from mid-October to mid-December each year, although for Reading Family Aid, it is a year long project!
  • It relies on the amazing generosity of the residents of the Reading area as well as of many local businesses, schools, places of worship and other clubs and organisations in donating gifts, money, other essentials and their time.
  • We and the recipients are extremely grateful to all those that contribute.

Key Dates for 2026:

October 22nd Toys and Teens Appeal Launch
December 5th Last date for donations
December 6th - 11th Toy sorting, packing and distribution

Thank you to our sponsors

The Appeal was sponsored by the following organisations in 2025, to whom we are extremely grateful:
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who give us a full page each week of the Appeal where you can read our stories and get a full list of the donation points
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who have donated a large amount of money that we can use to buy toys, gifts and essential supplies to run the Project.
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who give us free use of several of their vans for the week so we can collect all the donations and deliver the packed sacks
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who have donated a large amount of money that we can use to buy toys, gifts and essential supplies to run the Project.
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who give us a free room so that we can store the early donations
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who have donated a large amount of money that we can use to buy toys, gifts and essential supplies to run the Project.
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who generously donate several thousands of pounds worth of toys and gifts each year.
Reading Family Aid Group     Registered Charity No. 1022144    Phone 07930 033413