Best Places to Donate in the North East for Christmas 2025
Written by Katie Higson on 7th November 2025
(Photo credit: Lucie Liz on Pexels)
If you have been feeling extra festive this year and considered donating to local families this Christmas, but not sure where to start, then here’s the perfect list of the best places in the North East accepting donations.
This includes an interactive map (link here) showing available drop-off locations.
1. Norah’s North Pole
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Norah’s North Pole is a North-East-based, family-run organisation that create “Santa sacks filled with the most wonderful presents for those children who will go without on Christmas morning”.
The deadline for gift donations is Wednesday December 10 2025.
Founded in 2015, the team at Norah’s North Pole explained: “Norah’s North Pole was set up in memory of our Grandma who lived by the motto ‘It’s nice to be nice’.” Her grandchildren have continued this tradition and said, “We can make a difference, even if it is only for that moment on Christmas morning.”
Since the organisation has been celebrating its 10th birthday, they have announced that by the end of the year they will have distributed “over half a million presents”.
They have three main ways that you can support them:
- Dropping off new gifts at their designated collection points (click here for link to list of drop-off locations)
- Purchasing gifts from their online Amazon Wish List (click here for link) (which delivers directly to their headquarters)
- Giving monetary donations to their Go Fund Me page (click here for link) (which goes towards purchasing essential items and gifts)
You can also organise a gift collection within your organisation on behalf of Norah’s North Pole- gifts can be either donated at a collection point or directly to Norah’s North Pole HQ. If you require more information on this, please contact: elves@norahsnorthpole.co.uk.
2. St Benedict’s Hospice Dedication Tree
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From November 17 until November 29, the Dedication Christmas Tree will be located in the Bridges Shopping Centre Sunderland to donate and write a dedication note to a loved one.
The team at St. Benedict’s Hospice said:
“We are happy to have been invited back to The Bridges Shopping Centre again this year to host our Dedication Tree…our supporters can visit us, make a donation and write a dedication to a loved one to be hung on our tree. When the tree closes, dedications will be moved to the Chapel at the Hospice for the Christmas period.”
Specifically, they will be located outside Boots and Greggs, and have a selection of Christmas cards and gifts available for purchase.
They explained that: “donations made will allow us to continue to provide the holistic range of bespoke care services tailored to the individual needs of each patient, now and into the future.”
3. Hope4Kidz toy appeal
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Yet again, the Sunderland Echo have partnered up with the Wearside charity Hope4Kidz to ask the public to donate to their ‘Christmas New Toys, Gifts and Selection Box Appeal 2025’.
The gift donations will go towards thing such as equipment, education and respite for disadvantaged children across the North East. This includes those living with long-term illnesses, disabilities, homelessness, poverty and abuse.
The charity have increased the number of organisations that they are donating to this year from 22 to 67, with some including children at Sunderland Royal Hospital, the Great North Children’s Hospital, special needs units and refuges. The gifts can also go to support their free ‘Annual Santa’s Christmas Party’ for over 350 disadvantaged children and their families.
This year’s Appeal launched on November 1 and will collect final donations from offices by Monday December 15 and from stores by Tuesday December 16. They have extended their collection timeframe “to give donors extra time to support the Appeal due to the increases in the cost of living crisis”.
Gift drop-off locations for Hope4Kidz have been added to the interactive map (link here) included in this article.
The organisation is asking collection points to contact them if their trolleys are full so it can be collected and distributed as soon as possible.
Hope4Kidz also said: “It would be amazing if business could organise to collect gifts in and donate them to our appeal and any other places who would like to become a collection point with a public foot fall. If you know of any groups, individuals or organisations the Charity may be able to give support, please send in your nomination to the office giving the details of their requirements.”
4. Dunelm Delivering Joy Christmas trees
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In stores all across the UK, Dunelm are managing their Delivering Joy campaign again. This system allows shoppers to pick up a tag with a Christmas gift request and age on it, buy items from any suitable store and donate their purchases back to the store to supply to less fortunate families in the surrounding areas.
Their website suggests donating to their partner charity Age UK if the tags run out.
5. Newcastle Council Share the Joy campaign
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Newcastle Council have announced their annual gift appeal in line with their Evry initiative, a plan launched in 2022 to support children and young people in the area.
The gift appeal donates to many children across Newcastle but focuses specifically on Care Leavers. Gifts can be purchased online from the council’s Amazon Wish List (link here) that was created by the young people themselves, and includes essential items such as warm clothing, thermal mugs, and hot water bottles. Their website explains that they have “the simple goal of ensuring every child wakes up to a gift on Christmas morning”.
6. YMCA North Shields
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Instead of using a gift tree like they did in previous years, the North Shields YMCA have decided to focus on donations and sponsorships this year. They said that their new Christmas campaign is “less about physical gifts and more about the act of connection”.
- Donations to the’ Opportunities for All Bursary’ (click here for link)
The YMCA are asking for donations from the public that will go towards funding their services over the next year and beyond. The bursary allows more people with financial struggles to join in YMCA activities and services through financial assistance. It can pay for programme costs (for example: holiday clubs, science classes and playgroups), getting gear (such as: new shoes for sports or interview clothes), or travel costs to access their programmes and services.
- £30 would buy the gift of a hot meal for young people at Youth Group.
- £50 would provide resources for two of their youth provisions.
- £200 would gift a young person a Metro pass for a whole year to access support.
2. Sponsor a Room for a Young Person in North Tyneside (click here for link)
The YMCA also allows you to donate monthly to provide a young person with a safe place to stay in their supported housing within North Shields. This will help support 16-to-18-year-olds and give them training.
- The donations start at £12 a month but you can go up to any monthly amount you’d like to give.
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