A NUMBER OF charities are urging people to donate unwanted Christmas gifts instead of seeing them go to waste.
St Mary’s Pro Cathedral in Dublin has made space available at their crib for donations of items like games, clothing, hats, scarves and toiletries.
All donations will be given to Crosscare who will put them into storage to be redistributed next year as gifts to homeless people and those in residential projects.
“By bringing us your unwanted gifts, we can ensure that the time, money and care that went into buying them result in bringing happiness to someone in need next Christmas,” according to the Pro Cathedral’s Fr. Damian O’Reilly.
Oxfam Ireland are also making a similar appeal for unwanted gifts and have commissioned a survey which shows that clothes, beauty products and books are among the gifts most likely to go unused.
Oxfam Ireland’s head of retail Michael McIlwaine says that any unwanted gifts like these would be welcomed throughout their 51 stores across Ireland. No donation they inists is too small.
Oxfam says that an unwanted top given to them could be sold for up to €8, something they say would help help purify around 2,000 litres of water in Sudan. Or, Oxfam says, a donated necklace sold for €15 could feed an orphaned child for three months.
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