This project is a way to spread Christmas magic to Lower Hutt children. It started in 2019 as requests on Lower Hutt Community Facebook groups with help for Christmas presents. It developed organically as a response to the needs of our Lower Hutt community facing financial hardship. In 2023, through the Pay It Forward Lower Hutt Facebook page, 145 children received presents. Last year, we supported nearly 400 children! Thank you so much to everyone who has supported this project. It means a lot to the children, their families and us as organisers. 

As a small scale project with only two volunteers running it, we faced challenges upscaling (the presents take up a lot of space and co-ordinating pick-ups individually is a lot more work for nearly 400 kids). We are reconsidering how this project can work with other organisations to further this project.

Given the increasing cost of living and food insecurity in our community, we are also exploring pivoting to donating Christmas food items to our Kokiri Marae Pataka Kai for distribution to families this Christmas.

This is a volunteer run project that does not have institutional barriers to seeking support. We organise present distribution with caregivers directly. 

Children benefit from receiving personalised presents. Santas get to create Christmas magic, build community and increase hauora. Local small businesses benefit by supporting and engaging with their community. 

Many people are doing it tough in our community and we want to facilitate the spreading of Christmas joy and remove stress for local families this Christmas.

Building this community is circular. We think that spreading Christmas joy and a sense of community will sow the seeds for all children and families involved to connect other community projects and do amazing things. 

If you want to share about being a secret santa, please tag post on our Facebook Page or tag us on Instagram @huttsantas and use #huttsanta. 

We would love it if you followed us on social media and signed up to our e-mail list so we can work on building a network capable of helping even more kids.

Contact admin@huttcommunity.co.nz or connect with our socials