Mrs Christmas Says a ‘Thousand Thanks & More’

Mrs Christmas, aka Pam Phillips from Henley Lions would like to thank the residents of Henley and Shiplake for the wonderful welcome they gave to Santa and his happy band of helpers, but also for their amazing generosity.

Over nine nights they collected a record breaking £5464.85, over £1,000 more than in 2019.

Pam said, “2020 has been a year none of us will ever forget. Indeed to get Santa and his sleigh on the road we had to assure the Police and the Council that we adhered to all the Covid-19 restrictions. I was very worried as to how we would let the children know that Santa was coming as we were not able to knock on doors. That seemed to be resolved by loud music and in our second week Ben Hargreaves, one of our drivers downloaded a Santa Tracking device onto my phone so families were able to follow us on various Facebook pages.

The Santa Sleigh is the first fundraising event this year for the Henley Lions. Every penny collected goes to local charities. Throughout 2020 our donations have included Sue Ryder, Henley Music School, Shiplake Scouts, First Days Children’s Charity, Bishopswood School, Henley Youth Festival, Henley Sea Cadets, Nomad Food Bank to name a few.

Santa brings his sleigh to Henley and Shiplake for two weeks of the year, but what about the other 50 weeks? A huge thank you to John Miles from Wilkins who provides a safe and dry place in his warehouse for us to store Santa’s Sleigh.

I would also like to thank the 36 local people who happily volunteer their evenings to bring Christmas joy to our town. I am certain that everyone involved would agree that their efforts were rewarded when they saw the smiling faces of the children (both young and old) waving to Santa.”