Tauranga Shoebox Christmas


About Us

We are a registered charity and we are passionate about spreading Christmas cheer throughout Tauranga, one shoebox at a time. Whilst a shoebox doesn’t seem like much for some people, for many children, Christmas with gifts doesn’t happen for them. A shoebox of brand-new gifts to call their own can make a memorable Christmas for many.

Bee and Claire are the main faces of the operation. These two do all the administration, liaison with schools and organisations, emails, coordination of sorting and deliveries. Cy is our IT / website guru who developed our website and registration software and then manages and troubleshoots throughout the year. We also have a team of ‘elves’ who assist with sorting, drop offs and deliveries as and when required.

How It Works

We liaise with schools and organisations who provide us with lists of children.

We have a registration process where amazing donators can sign up and are allocated a child off the lists to shop for. At a minimum we provide the donators with the age and gender of the child/ren. Where possible, we try to get the schools and organisations to provide some interests of each child to make shopping more fun.

The donators will then shop for their allocated child/ren. The gifts they purchase need to be able to fit in a shoebox. Donators will wrap the shoebox and drop it back to one of our drop off locations.

We then deliver the shoeboxes to each school / organisation when their list has been completely received and checked off. We aim to complete all deliveries the first week of December.

The Rules

  • The price range of shoebox is between $20-$50

  • No food

  • No cash, lotto tickets or gift vouchers

  • Ensure your shoebox, once full is wrapped and has your reference label (emailed with your allocation) printed and fixed to the bottom of the shoebox.

  • Drop off to one of our drop locations

Drop Off Locations

  • House of Travel Papamoa

  • House of Travel The Crossing

  • House of Tavel Mount Maunganui

  • Maven Bay of Plenty

  • Tunstall NZ

Tia SweetCharity