At Christmas one thing is evident; Christmas is for Children so when we put our heads together at Cardiff Cats Protection we wanted to create something that would enable us to put a smile on at least one Childs face; however even more so to touch the heart and create a memory would be a blessing.

When we thought long and hard we decided that we wanted to help out Santa Claus a little bit this season as we realised how hard he works and he could definitely do with a helping hand and one of our Key Volunteers Gail Akerman suggested that we do  a special ‘Write a Letter to Santa Paws’ promotion. The special promotion enabled us to raise additional income of £1.00 per letter, which was a PURRING success.

We did not go to much expense on this promotion as I found a letter on Google that gave us a pre designed template that children could draw a picture of themselves and their interpretation of Santa in addition to writing about what they would want as a Christmas Gift.

One young Lad called Logan wanted a Bicycle off Santa Claus and another wanted a Mickey Mouse Back Pack.  When you open these special letters, it is such an enormous privilege to read these special wishes and be someway directly involved in their gifts.

A few days before the big day, we opened the special delivery letterbox created for the children to post their complete letter in and we produced a wonderful little reply personally signed by Santa and Paws (A.K.A Nicola Jane Masters – Shop Manager Cardiff). A special Christmas card and a strip of artificial Holly was included in the card. Santa wrote strict instructions to attach it to their Christmas tree so that Santa and Paws might know that they were delivering to the right address. Once the letters were all ready for delivery Cardiff’s Shop Manager and her little Elf Ethan (her son) took to the streets of Cardiff in her silver sleigh, (Vauxhall Corsa) fuelled by Tesco Christmas Unleaded and in the dark night when no one was about delivered the letters without a sight.  One house did not have a number and the manager had to knock the door secretly and ask what number it was and tell the occupant whisperingly as her child was visible to close the door and pretend a letter had magically appeared.

One Grand Parent came into the shop to give us wonderful feedback on how her Grandson lit up on receiving the reply from Santa Claus and how over whelmed he was. She retold the joy he had on receiving the reply and the words he expressed to his Grandmother were ”Look, Look, Look” as he showed her the letter and the little strip of Holly that he had attached to his tree.  The Grandmother advised that they have a special memory box from when her Grandson Logan was born that little keepsakes are kept and each year until the magic dies he will now be attaching his magic strip of Holly to the tree.

What more can we wish for, as it is not about the additional income it is really all about creating a memory.