Bar staff broke down in tears after children wrote letters to Santa asking for “clean clothes” while another simply said they’d like “anything”. Landlords of The Percy Arms invited families to write their festive wishes on tags and hang them on the pub’s Christmas tree.
In a stark reminder of the struggles many are going through, staff were stunned by some of the things they read. One 15-year-old girl wrote: “A present for my dad. He’s sad since my mum died and not in a good place.”
An eight-year-old girl wrote: “Clean clothes, please. Mine are dirty". A note a six-year-old girl wrote, said: "Something to make with mammy."
A note written on behalf of a 17-year-old boy, said: “Anything, as he’s used to getting nothing.”
Staff at the pub say they were “blown away” by the humble festive wishes and hope the majority of the children will have their wishes made real. The pub, on Chatton, Northumberland, is part of a community organisation Christmas For All, which has created a gift tag for each child, giving their age, gender and outlining their request.
The tags are hung on a Christmas tree in the pub and customers are invited to choose one, fulfil the request and return the gifts to the pub, which will pass them to Christmas For All to be distributed to the children. Organiser Oliver Bennet said the children’s requests “had shaken each and every one of us to the core".
He added: “You can read about hardship and food banks and poverty. But to see, written down in black and white, young children asking simply for some clean clothes for Christmas – well, that really hits you.
“And many of them – despite having so little themselves – put others’ happiness before their own. That’s the real spirit of Christmas isn’t it – and it’s heartbreaking that it’s taking children to remind us of that.”
The organisation is looking for gifts for around 2,000 children in south east Northumberland alone, some of whom have been referred to them by other organisations or local authorities and others who have been self-referred.
