Last year during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic we realised we could not hold our annual Christmas grotto from our community garden but we did not want the local children missing out on the magic of Christmas.

At our annual grotto's we usually see over 500 children which we have run for the last three years. We gave it a lot of thought and decided to to as much as we could for the local community.

First thing we did was to hide over 380 reading books of all different ages around the park. The books were sealed and a note from Santa and a candy cane was included. Our volunteers hid them all over the park and then watched while children ran around collecting them. The excitement and joy was lovely to see and the feedback from parents and family members was fantastic. Second thing we did was a sleigh ride around the park. Our Santa and Elf traveled around on a decorated trailer in the park so all of the community could see them who had all missed out on the annual Christmas grotto's and keeping within Covid-19 restrictions.

This meant the magic of Christmas was returned to Walton hall park and its surrounding community.

This year we are applying for to purchase brand new books to again hide around the park for the children to find.

This will allow us to purchase books for all ages so that we know every child will not miss out on finding a suitable book.