Children's Hospice South West lends the Santa suit, your team brings breakfast and gives at least £5 each, to help Charlton Farm families this Christmas.
Children’s Hospice South West, which runs Charlton Farm in Wraxall, is asking workplaces across North Somerset and the wider South West to host a Breakfast with Santa this Christmas. The charity lends the Santa suit, the team brings the food, and colleagues give a suggested minimum of £5 each.
The campaign runs “across the festive period”, so each workplace picks its own date, according to the charity’s Breakfast with Santa 2026 page. In its press release, sent to us on 21 October, the charity says it wants businesses, organisations and teams to “bring colleagues together for a festive start to the day, with a nominated Santa serving up smiles alongside breakfast”.
The money goes to Children’s Hospice South West (CHSW), which runs three children’s hospices: Little Bridge House in Barnstaple, Charlton Farm near Bristol and Little Harbour in St Austell. It cares for babies, children and young people with life-limiting conditions and their families.
How it works
The charity sets out four steps: sign up, choose a date during the festive period, nominate your Santa, and gather colleagues “for a breakfast with a purpose”. CHSW provides the Santa suit; the team provides the breakfast. Its fundraising pack suggests making it part of a team meeting or “a festive end of year thank you to the team”.
The pack’s checklist for hosts:
- Before the day: set a date and place, nominate your Santa, check dietary requirements, ask staff to wear something festive, and ask whether the business could match the total or round it up afterwards.
- On the day: decorate the office, hold a raffle, give prizes for the best festive outfit, suggest the £5 minimum donation, and take photos and tag CHSW on social media.
The pack lists three ways to collect: an online giving page on Facebook or JustGiving, which the charity says saves collecting any money; the CharityGo app, which turns a phone into a card reader for contactless donations; or cash, paid in online or by cheque. Gift Aid adds 25p to every £1 from UK taxpayers who tick the box, and the sponsor form asks for a home address, not a work one, for that reason. Cash and cheques can be taken to Charlton Farm, Charlton Drive, Wraxall, BS48 1PE; the charity asks people not to post cash.
“Precious time together”
Amanda Gallagher, Corporate Fundraiser for CHSW, said:
“Breakfast with Santa is a wonderful way for workplaces to celebrate the festive season while making a real difference to local families. Christmas is about spending precious time together and creating special memories and our hospices work hard to make those moments possible for the families we support.”
The charity says Christmas “can be a particularly poignant time” for the families it supports. Across its three hospices it puts on festive activities and family time alongside year-round care, and it says the breakfast money will pay for that care and for “festive treats, activities and gifts tailored to children’s individual needs”.
What the money pays for
The event page gives these examples:
- £100 could give a parent the gift of an uninterrupted night’s sleep this Christmas.
- £215 could pay for one nurse for one day, giving a parent time to prepare for Christmas.
- £450 could pay for a day of support and care in the family home for a child and their family at Christmas.
- £1,000 could pay for a Christmas stay at one of the hospices.
At the £5 suggested minimum, a team of 20 would reach the first of those.
About the charity
CHSW says it is the only children’s hospice in the South West, and that it costs around £16 million a year to run its three hospices, almost all of it from voluntary donations. Charlton Farm opened in 2007. The charity’s services, which it lists as hospice stays and days, specialist play, music therapy, activities for siblings, palliative and emergency care, end of life care, bereavement support and specialist medical care, are free to families and available 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
What it means for you
- Sign up at chsw.org.uk/event/breakfast-santa (the poster’s short link is chsw.org.uk/breakfast). The fundraising pack, sponsor form and a poster for the staff kitchen are free to download from the same page.
- Pick any date in the festive period that suits your team.
- Questions go to the Charlton Farm fundraising team on 01275 866 600, the number the charity gives.
The same charity’s Santas on the Run North Somerset is at Charlton Farm on Sunday 6 December, for anyone who would rather run in the suit than serve breakfast in it.
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