For 12 years now, in the lead up to Christmas, Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries and the Mount Maunganui Lions have teamed up to pull off a special community dinner for Tauranga families that need a lift.

An essential ingredient of the community Christmas celebration are the toys, of course. There are roughly a thousand toys which are given out to the families in attendance.

Visitors to the four library locations in Tauranga - five if the Mobile Library is included - have generously donated many thousands of toys, books, fashion kits, sports items, and more throughout the years and are being called upon to give generously once more.

“When you see a beaming child picking out a present at the community dinner, you find yourself beaming too,” said Daniel Petersen at Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga Library,

“Seeing where the donations go firsthand, it’s just … it’s a real buzz and one of my favourite things that we’re involved in. I hope we can supply a load of toys again this year.”

Unfortunately, the list of struggling families identified this year is the biggest yet, with it looking likely that many will be spending Christmas Day living in their cars.

This has prompted the campaign’s indefatigable creator, Brenda Anderson, to attempt to do even more, by gathering items like vouchers, soaps, and edible treats to create family gift baskets.

“The dinner is my favourite night of the year, and the gifts will be loved by their recipients for years to come,” said Anderson, “but we thought that it’d be nice for the whole family to have something to enjoy come Christmas day too, so hopefully we can supply some gift baskets for added relief.”

Crucially, the community dinner takes place on Tuesday, December 17, which means that the Make a Child Smile appeal needs to seek donations before many people have even begun to think about Christmas.

This year’s cut off for donations is Sunday, December 15, so that everything can be sorted and assigned. This means that the community is being urged to get to their local library with their donations “as quick as they can.”

In saying that, Petersen and Anderson feel it’s always important to stress that late donations will never be turned away.

“We get great intel thanks to our friends at Plunket and the Arataki Community Centre, so we always know where to find the perfect home for every gift that we receive”.

Gift donations can be dropped off to any Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries location from now until Monday, December 11.