A Christmas Presence

Despite the challenges we are open! We have some animals on site too! The elves are waiting to welcome you!

We are still aiming to be open today but are aware that there is a power cut at the premises (and other units on Denmark Street!) We may not be able to have all our usual twinkly lights on but will do our best! Please bear with us as the power is not planned to be back on until 4pm!

Bookings are now available for Father Christmas on the 9th and the 16th!
Follow the link!

https://www.trybooking.com/uk/events/landing/51482

https://www.trybooking.com/uk/events/landing/51485

A Christmas Presence Santa's Grotto - 9th December 2023 Meet Santa at the Christmas Presence Grotto - pick a 30 min slot here for a visit with Santa Clause in his Christmas Grotto. Each ticket admits one child - each child will receive one small gift.

Our first full week of appointments is done at A Christmas Presence!

The First Days Children's Charity team welcomed the parents and carers of over 350 children in the last 5 days.

We still have appointments throughout December to support more than 1000 children so if you are able to support by buying a gift of sending a financial donation we would be incredibly grateful!

This week we welcomed the parents and carers of over 350 children to our Christmas shop. We're so pleased to be able to help take some of the pressure off families at this time of year.

We have appointments throughout this month and more than 1000 children in our community still to provide presents for; we need as much support as we can get to keep our shop stocked up.

If you can, please help by buying a gift from our amazon wishlist:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/AFRTNDCDWSJK?ref_=list_d_wl_lfu_nav_3

Or by making a donation:
https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/bestchristmasever

Thank you so much 💙💜🧡

What a busy day we had today but lovely to see so many children welcomed at a Christmas Presence. We hope all who came through enjoyed themselves!
Can we kindly ask that you check if a very special wand accidentally made it home with one of the children? The Elves need the wand to switch on the candles (with magic of course) in the entrance to the grotto but it was missing at the end of the day! If you find it please let us know and return it to Elevate! We don’t want the place left in darkness!!

We are hosting the grotto for the Wokingham Winter Carnival this Sunday! All the slots to visit Father Christmas have already gone however he will return on the 9th and the 16th and slots can be prebooked for those days on Monday!

Can you help!??

We would love to add some local children’s letters to Father Christmas to A Christmas Presence! Your children may even spot their letter when they visit the grotto!

Please deliver or post them to:
A Christmas Presence c/o First Days,
Elevate Centre,
The Courtyard,
Denmark St
Wokingham
RG40 2AZ

Thank you!!

We are getting everything f ready to open the doors at the end of the month! We would like to have some real trees at the entrance to A Christmas Presence - are there any tree sellers or garden centres that would like to help!!??

It’s that time of year again! A Christmas Presence will be opening it’s doors very soon! The elves are busy preparing the Elevate centre in readiness of the arrival of Father Christmas!

If you or your company would like to be able to support with gifts or would like to be a busy elf for a day get in touch!

This Christmas, our Elevate Centre will be transformed into a 'shop' where parents/carers are invited in to choose gifts for their children.

We opened up our request form and in the first hour had requests for over 700 children. This was from a parent filling out our Christmas application form last night.

More parents have asked for help in the first 12 hours of applications being open for Christmas than they did in the whole of November last year.

Please help us to support them all: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/bestchristmasever

A great day with Woodley Lunch Bunch today! Thank you to everyone who joined us. We look forward to welcoming more people next Saturday!

We are delighted to announce that we will be open every Saturday (except Christmas Eve) for visits to see Father Christmas, free crafts and refreshments in our Lapland lounge! No booking necessary for Father Christmas however there is a £5 charge per child which includes a gift with all proceeds going back into the project!

Last week The Grub Club Wokingham were hosts next week it’s the Woodley Lunch Bunch and the week following Wokingham Baptist Church! We hope to welcome you there!

We have decorated some of the trees at A Christmas Presence with sunflowers which may seem like an unlikely decoration but there is a reason!

Let us tell you about our friend Chris, she was one of a kind, a friend to young and to old. She was consistent and authentic, she had integrity and a passion to show God's love to others & had the ability to do that in ways most of us can only dream of. She encapsulated everything that A Christmas Presence is aims to do and to be.

Chris wanted you to know that you are loved, you are cared for and God sees you - even in your darkest moments, God is there. Many spoke to Chris and shared their concerns about life. Chris walked through life and just like the verse from the Bible in Galatians chapter 6 she enabled others to "share their burden & in this way obeyed the law of Christ Jesus."

Chris loved a sunflower, sunflowers look skywards when they grow but when it is a darker day they look to one another.

Like the sunflowers we must remember to not only look to one another but also skyward - even on the dark days.

Psalm 121 tells us:
I look up to the mountains;
does my strength come from mountains?
No, my strength comes from God,
who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.

The Grub Club Wokingham are with us today offering free craft activities! You can even visit the grotto and meet a very special Father Christmas!

Oh how far this little project has come! 8 years ago Emma brought some toys to Norreys Church for local families in need at Christmas. Fast forward to this year and we have a whole grotto, 2 shops filled with stock and festive food hampers ready to go for every family that attends!

It is great to work together in partnership to make a difference in our town!

On this day 8 years ago, our CEO, Emma Cantrell took a van full of toys to a church hall in Wokingham and invited local families to choose Christmas presents for their children.

This week, we start our gift selection appointments. Sadly, the demand for help is high; this year we've been asked to support over 1000 children with gifts.

We're still here - giving Choice, Dignity and Power back to families who have had it taken away from them due to their financial situation.

If you would like to support us by making a financial contribution or purchasing a gift for a child you can do so here: https://www.firstdays.net/christmas-2022

Not only are we supoorting with a warm space and Christmas gifts but there are activities for the adults too!! Details below!

We have 3 fantastic new Christmas workshops at our Elevate Centre, all raising vital funds for First Days - we hope you can join us!:

🎄Festive Wreath Workshop
All materials provided to create the foundation of en elegant wreath which you can take home and add to if you wish.
6 December 2022, 7.30pm - 9pm

🧶Festive Crochet Workshop by the Barkham Hookers
The workshop is led by Gaynor White from Barkham Hookers Charity Group and you will make a beautiful string of Christmas bunting.
7 December 2022, 7pm to 9.30pm

🎨Paint & Prosecco Workshop
A Festive Paint Night Workshop led by local artist Deborah Pope from Make a Masterpiece. You will be guided through painting a cheeky Christmas pheasant and bring home a canvas board to put up with your Christmas decorations.
9 December 2022, 7pm to 9.30pm

For more info on how to book, visit our website: https://www.firstdays.net/events

We're very excited to be running these creative events from our Elevate centre, and hope to see you there! 🎄🎄🎄

Part of the living room scene we have at A Christmas Presence was an antique gramophone which has unfortunately been damaged with the guests visiting yesterday. The gramophone played perfectly well but has had the stylus removed. Can we ask that you check if you have accidentally taken this home!!??

It seems a great shame to not have it as it was so others can enjoy it!

The grotto is open at the Wokingham Winter Carnival. Write a letter to Father Christmas then get to see his festive home in Wokingham.

We have already welcome the Town Mayor and Mini Mayor!

Tomorrow sees the official opening on A Christmas Presence 2022 as we are hosts for the Father Christmas Grotto for the winter carnival.

We are excited to share the transformation and hope we have created a space that will transport you to Father Christmas’s workshop and give you a warm and fuzzy glow!

Excited to say we are almost ready to open the doors of A Christmas Presence. The teams from SHARE WokinghamFirst Days Children's Charity, Wokingham Lions Club and Wokingham Foodbankhave worked hard to transform the old Police station into Father Christmas’s Wokingham abode! We open on Sunday to host the grotto and then welcome our first families for gift selection early next week!

Come along and take a look!

🎄ONE WEEK TO GO!🎄

The Wokingham Winter Carnival 2022 will be next Sunday 27th November!

Our main stage next to the Town Hall will feature music, singing and dancing - Wokingham town centre is closed to traffic for the day allowing Denmark St, Peach St, Broad St and Peach Place to be filled with street entertainment!

Our entertainment programme for the day is now available to download here https://tinyurl.com/wokywinter

We'll also have all the fun of the fair with loads of different rides for young and old - and there will be over 125 stalls selling gifts & goods so you can get your Christmas shopping sorted 🎁 - plus lots of food & drink options!

🎅 Santa will be in his grotto - and at the end of the day there will be carol singing with the town's christmas lights being switched on before our spectacular finale!

Main Sponsors TradeMark Windows Doors & Conservatories & The Rose Inn, Wokingham.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas with some exciting features we can tell you about soon however first and foremost we want to explain what we feel are the important factors in a charity Christmas project.

We urgently need around a single garage of space to store some of the Christmas items until we have other premises which should be available in the next 6 weeks or so.
Can any local companies offer any storage for free? If you can please get in touch with either Emma at First Days or Claire at Share Wokingham.

We have now closed our doors for this Christmas! Thank you to each and everyone who has visited, volunteered, commented, encouraged and supported us!

A Christmas Presence has been a huge community project and has displayed the outpouring of love and care for one another within Wokingham. We would not have existed were it not for the voluntary support of so many so huge thank you!

We hope to welcome you back in 2022, in the meantime we hope you all have a lovely Christmas and look forward to seeing you next year.

We had a visit from not one but two mayors last week!! Thank you for coming along so we could explain more about the project!

The Mayor has visited the Christmas Presence Shop in Elms Field 🎄

The shop is a collaboration between Wokingham Borough Council, First Days Children’s Charity, Wokingham Foodbank and Share Wokingham, and has been created to provide gifts and festive food items for households that are financially struggling ❤

Come over tomorrow to make a Christingle with the team from Wokingham Baptist Church! It’s your last chance to come to the shop before Christmas!

It’s been a mince pie sort of day today! We were short on items for the hampers and to give at the shop but with grateful thanks to Morrisons in Woosehill and our new friends and neighbours Aldi UK we have replenished stock!