Santa's Grotto & Raffle
Christmas Eve
British Airways Waterside Headquarters Building

Set up for the Grotto began on the afternoon of 23rd December when a meeting room was transformed into a festive frenzy of gold and silver with Santa's special corner particularly dazzly. At 8.30 on Christmas Eve morning the finishing touches were added and at 9.30 Santa was ready with his parcels to meet the children in his Grotto. There was a steady queue of keen and excited children who were entertained by Elves and other willing volunteers until Santa was able to greet them and have a festive chat. Bev was busy with a tombola and Kay and Josie were occupied managing the films and instant Santa photos. On the main concourse we had set up a large raffle table and a team of helpers worked its way across the floorplates selling tickets to members of staff still busy in the offices. Throughout the whole morning up until drawing the raffle at 1 o'clock (Santa came out of his Grotto specially to draw the winning tickets) there was a constant stream of people purchasing tickets and visiting Santa. There was a great interest for what Christopher's Smile is doing and the support was fantastic.

We would like to thank everyone who helped to set up the event and who worked hard behind the scenes to enable it to happen and we would also like to thank everyone who helped on the day and put in such enthusiasm to make it such a success.

Together with the Santa's Grotto visits, instant photos, raffle and tombola as well as a "no Christmas card sending to colleagues" donation from the Learning Centre an incredible £1811.33 was raised.