Santa Claus is coming to town

One of the 10 reasons to work at Neon Play is that we give a percentage of our profits to local charities and ideally ones which are actually based in Cirencester itself. And we are proud to support CHYP - Cirencester Housing for Young People - and have funded the redecoration one of the bedrooms in their houses.

Jingle jangle

So when CHYP asked us if we would like to go around the back streets of Ciren raising money for CHYP, we were bang up for the challenge. We thought it would be a couple of santa hats, some tinsel and a jangling bucket of shrapnel.

But hark, no! We had an actual sleigh with Rudolph at the front. All we needed was some snow and we could have been in Lapland!

Santa graces us with his presence

Here are the team sitting atop the sleigh, with Santa ready to dish out happiness to the children of Cirencester with his merry band of elves (Chris, Robin, Matt and Gwyn). 

Ho, ho, ho

Highlights of the evening included meeting an ex-Santa who gave some useful Father Christmas-based hints and tips, as well as some stories for more mature audiences. Also one of Santa’s little helpers stumbled across a home where there was a gentleman watching something that is called "adult entertainment" (not for the kiddies!). 

Please donate

Anyway, it’s a cracking charity doing a truly, truly sterling job in often very difficult circumstances, so do try and help them if you can - they need £200,000 a year to survive and government-funding has been mostly eradicated for them. 

Quote time

Oscar Mullan, aka Cirencester Santa said, "We had a great evening going round the houses of Cirencester collecting donations for CHYP. Seeing families being generous with their donations and the amazing reaction of the kids to Santa on his sleigh made the whole evening an awesome experience. It was great speaking to all the shy kids who were speechless at meeting the real (albeit quite young) Santa!"

Natalie Ledger, Fundraising Officer for Cirencester Housing for Young People commented, "We are really grateful to the guys at Neon Play who went round with the Round Table Christmas Sleigh to raise money for Chyp. To be honest we wouldn't have been able to do this again this year, since we had didn't have enough volunteers able to help but then Neon Play came to the rescue! They have certainly helped to make Christmas a little happier for the homeless young people we support. Thank you!"

Oli Christie, CEO of Neon Play commented, “CHYP is a brilliant local Cirencester charity,so when they asked us if we could go door knocking with Santa, Oscar and his merry band of elves were chombing at Rudolph's bit to get out there and collect money from the good people of Cirencester.”