Once again we will be collecting Christmas gifts for prisoners’ children, which we will hand over to CrossReach, the social care arm of the Church of Scotland, at a special service on December 8.

Since we are celebrating Houston & Killellan Kirk’s 150th anniversary this year, it would be lovely to set ourselves the target of gathering enough gifts for 150 children. 

CrossReach run a visitors’ support and advice service at HMP Perth, and a visitors’ centre family hub at HMYOI Polmont.

Many of the children of prisoners have very little and, at Christmas time especially, they can often feel left out.

CrossReach prison visitor service aims to provide a gift at Christmas for each of the children it comes into contact with, and this is where our donations of new clothing, toys and gifts is vital.

Elaine Waugh, of CrossReach, explains: “We are always overwhelmed by the generosity of the congregation at Houston & Killellan Kirk and your wider community. It reminds us that there is good in the world.

“For the prisoners, and their children, they will always remember that somebody at a church wanted to make sure they received a gift, or had a gift to give, at Christmas and that can be very profound.”

Gifts can be handed in to our Foodbank Collection Point on  the mornings of  Tuesday, November 26 and Tuesday, December 3 (from 10am to 12pm) – or brought along to our Christmas Gift Service at 11am on December 8.

Please place NEW, unwrapped items in open gift bags.

There is no need to label them by age/boy/girl etc as staff at CrossReach will sort through the donations themselves, before the gifts are handed out to children.

Below are some suggestions for gift ideas to help you get started.

For children aged 3 – 5 years: Clothing, craft kits, colouring/sticker books, pen/pencil sets, Disney/action hero figures, trucks/cars, dolls, Play-Doh, jigsaws or books/Christmas Annuals

For children aged 6 – 9 years: Clothing, jewellery sets, board games, craft kits, pencil cases, pen/pencil sets, small Lego sets, Christmas Annuals/books and selection boxes

For children aged 10-plus: Clothing, craft/building sets, sand/clay modelling sets, board games, mechanical Lego/Brickheadz, gadget puzzles, Christmas Annuals/books, teen and young people annuals, boxed pens and selection boxes.

Please don’t donate anything too heavy or bulky since most families travel by public transport – thank you!