Does it get any more festive than breaking out the wrapping paper and spending and evening surrounded by Christmas presents?!

Last night we had 2 tasks to complete - constructing and wrapping the boxes needed by Shoebox Project for their Christmas gift packs, and making a start on Operation Christmas Gift for Oxford Mutual Aid. Fortunately we were able to take over the Richard Benson Hall where the food bank is based and do both tasks there - saving us from a logistical nightmare!

On arrival we got stuck into (literally in some cases) the flat-pack boxes for the Shoebox Project. They were easy enough to construct, but quite tricky to find the best way to cover them in wrapping paper! Still, a bit of puzzling and perseverance paid off and everyone seemed to find a good method in the end, getting all 20 boxes covered in Christmas paper, and a few even decorated with festive bows and ribbons too.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the hall we tackled the mountain of Christmas gift donations. First we hauled the crates out and worked out what was actually in them, categorising by recipient age. Then we started picking out the gifts for households on the Monday food parcel delivery routes; wrapping them, labelling them up and putting them into crates ready to be added to food parcels in the week leading up to Christmas. We were the trial run for the system, so there was a bit to figure out, but once we'd got the hang of where everything was we got into the swing of it very efficiently.

As people finished their Shoe boxes we redeployed them over to gift corner to unpack and categorise the pile of incoming gift donations which hadn't yet been opened or sorted.

We definitely left the task feeling festive, but I must remember to bring Christmas TUNES for next week!