Blog: Be a #SocialMediaSanta and give a homeless child a Christmas to remember

santaWith only five Fridays left before the big day, Shelter Scotland national marketing & communications manager, Amanda Collins, turns her attention once again to Social Media Santa.

There are over 5,000 reasons stopping us from celebrating this year – because that’s the number of children in Scotland that will spend this Christmas without a permanent home of their own.

Shelter Scotland have hundreds of boys and girls – aged from 6 months to 16 years – supported by our services, who might not get a present on Christmas morning. You can give a homeless child a Christmas to remember, by becoming a Social Media Santa.

Social Media Santa is the brainchild of our pal Ross McCulloch, Director of Third Sector Lab – a specialist digital agency working with charities and social enterprises. For the past 5 years, through the generosity of this initiative, you have managed to give a happy Christmas to children across our projects in Glasgow, South Lanarkshire, Dumfries, Dundee and Renfrewshire

If you haven’t Santa’d in previous years and you want to, this is how it works.

  1. Decide how you want to support families in need this Christmas – with a physical gift or by donating money to Shelter Scotland. A £10 donation is enough for one of our expert advisers to help a family at risk of losing their home.
  2. Donate or buy a gift from your favourite online retailer. Add to basket, use our address at checkout (below) and add a message using the ‘gift’ option if available. (Please remember to include your details so we can send a thank you!)
  3. If buying in a local toy shop: send to us or drop it off at our office in Edinburgh. (Again – remember to include your details so we can thank you properly.)
  4. Please ensure your gift is unwrapped, so we know what each gift is and can ensure it goes to the most appropriate child.
  5. Share a picture of your gift or one of our graphics to let people know you are a Social Media Santa and use the #SocialMediaSanta hashtag across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to help spread the word!
  6. Feel festive and awesome.
  7. Send your gift unwrapped to:

    #SocialMediaSanta,

    Shelter Scotland,

    Scotiabank House,

    6 South Charlotte Street,

    Edinburgh,

    EH2 4AW.

    We will be accepting gifts from today 17th November – 9th December. Please ensure presents reach us by Friday 9th December, to give us time to distribute them. Thank you!

    Share icon
    Share this article: