Through a combination of staff donations, community fundraising, and sponsorship from local businesses Vale of Glamorgan Council was able to give hundreds of families across the Vale the gift of a Merry Christmas. 

Earlier in the year, the council launched 'Santa's Cause', a fundraising and gift-giving campaign to provide every child and young person in the Vale with a Christmas gift who otherwise might go without.

Thanks to the generosity of staff and local businesses, more than 1,000 gifts have been distributed via the council's social services and Flying Start teams to families across the county.

Following the huge success of the campaign, the Council has thanked those businesses whose donations helped make it happen: Barry Town United FC, The Entertainer - Cardiff, The Big Fresh, The Works – Barry, Big Fresh, Romaquip, Staff at South Wales Police, Watts Truck and Van Centre, Apollo Teaching, Hugh James Solicitors, Twenty4Seven Education, New Directions, CJ Contract Travel Services Ltd, Education Staffing Solutions Limited, LCB, Euro Commercials (South Wales) Limited, Fudge Learning, McCann and Partners, Equal Education Partners, Merricks Transport Ltd, Newydd Housing, Creigau Travel, Gibson Specialist Technical Services Limited, Parent Pay and AECOM, HLM, Hydrock and The Urbanists.

Cllr Lis Burnett, Executive Leader and Cabinet Member for Performance and Resources, said: "Colleagues and I have been humbled by the amount of support that Santa's Cause has received#

"Christmas can be a time of great stress, anxiety, and sadness for families and unfortunately with the ever-rising cost of living, a record number of families are in need of our support this winter

"The wide-scale collaboration and enormous generosity that has gone into this campaign speaks volume about the 'Vale-spirit'

"I'm incredibly proud that we have been able to support our amazing teams in social services in bringing a smile to the faces of many this Christmas

"Whether you shared the cause on social media, donated a present, contributed money, offered your services or helped to coordinate the campaign, from us and hundreds of families across the Vale…

"Thank you and Merry Christmas. Diolch yn fawr a Nadolig Llawen!"