A host of famous faces have been putting their best feet forward for our Festive Feet fundraiser, part of our Hope For Christmas appeal this year.

We’ve been sharing their celebrity socks and slippers on our social media channels over the past week and now it’s Festive Feet Day, it’s time for the big reveal! How many famous feet did you manage to guess correctly?

Here are the people who joined in the fun – see if you can guess who’s socks belong to who. Then check if you were correct by scrolling down…

1: These festive feet belong to a North Tyneside writer with murder on their mind

2: These festive feet have trodden the boards of television’s Woolpack Pub in the past

3: This celebrity sock wearer had a ball with us last year and is a good friend of Christmas Carol

4: These ‘Let it Snow’ socks belong to someone who’ll be able to tell us if we’re getting a white Christmas this year

5: These celebrity socks belong to our Number 1’s DS Aiden Healy. But can you name the actor?

6: This celebrity slipper wearer has alter egos called Dennis Patterson; Les & Lesley Conroy and Gastric.

And here’s the BIG REVEAL!

How did you get on?

1: Author of the Vera and Shetland books, Ann Cleeves

2: Charlie Hardwick, who played Val Pollard in TV soap, Emmerdale

3: BBC anchorman, Jeff Brown, who MCd at our Sandcastle Ball last year, co-presenter of Look North with ‘Christmas Carol’ Malia

4: ITV Tyne Tees weatherman, Ross Hutchinson, pictured at our Sandcastle Challenge last year

5: Actor, Kenny Doughty, who plays DS Aiden Healy in the TV hit, Vera

6: Our very own patron, Tim Healy in festive, Tommy Cooper-style, head wear!

Thanks to all our famous feet for being such good sports and to all of YOU for supporting our first Festive Feet Day!

This Christmas we’ve been heartened by the number of children wanting to help other little ones who don’t enjoy the advantages they themselves have.

Five-year-old Lola Mahon for example is backing our Hope for Christmas appeal by donating her precious jar of pocket money pennies to children whose families are struggling at the moment.

Her mum, Clara, said: “We were sitting at the dinner table, talking about how some people are finding things really difficult and Lola said, ‘I’m going to give my money to children who don’t have anything.'”

Clara and husband, Jamie, a director with Irugasa Industrial Remote Control Systems, have three children – three-year-old Otis, Lola and their older brother, Louis, 16. Clara said: “I’ve got a penny jar for each of the kids, just a jam jar they collect their pocket money in and normally they’d use it when we go on holiday. But Lola said she wanted hers to go to help other children this year.”

Clara was so humbled by her daughter’s generosity that she decided to join Lola and set up a justgiving page called Santa’s Little Helpers which has already raised £195 in addition to Lola’s money jar.

Our Senior Fundraiser, Carol Taylor, explained that Lola’s gift is reminiscent of the very beginnings of our charity.

“In the 1890s when our charity began, a little girl called Bertha Warden, from Hexham, emptied her 4 shillings and sixpence savings to help Newcastle’s street children have a day out at the seaside. So Lola’s kind gift harks back to Bertha and those early days.”

Another 21st century Bertha is seven-year-old Anna Mageary of Wideopen who’s decided to get on her bike for Children North East. On Saturday December 12 she’s asking people to get on their bikes and cycle five miles for a fiver in aid of our charity.

Anna’s mum, Claire, said her daughter had been inspired by Children In Need’s rickshaw challenge this year. “As we were watching, I was trying to explain how lucky she was and how so many children live in different circumstances. She decided to cycle five miles and get sponsored £5 and ask friends and family to do it too. Anna has cousins in Finland and an aunty and uncle in Luxembourg so it’s going to be an international event!”

Anyone who’d like to help Anna by getting on their bikes on December 12 can find out more via her justgiving page.

Architecture practice, Xsite, have drawn up a brilliant Christmas Bake for Bairns fundraiser that’s got great kerb appeal!

The Ouseburn-based firm have been cooking up a storm and these mouth watering photographs of their recent bakes demonstrate just how talented the team are in the kitchen.

Practice Manager, Gail Temperley, said their Christmas Bake For Bairns Challenge is proving a lovely way to keep staff in touch and involved as half of the office are currently working from home. In fact it’s creating a fair bit of good-natured competition. “It’s certainly stirred things up and it’s a good talking point,” said Gail.

The Chorizo and Apple Sausage Rolls above were created by architect Paul Convery whilst architecture student Jack O’Neil, on placement with Xcite from Sheffield Hallam University this year, baked an amazing Blueberry Cheesecake. Meanwhile, Gail herself went with her mum, Mary’s, recipe for a Traditional Sausage Plait, which was a real winner and which she’s kindly agreed to share here.

“My mum used to make it when we were little and my brother’s friends used to call it Cow Pie – it’s been handed down and the name’s just stuck! It really is lovely and very easy to make.”

If you’d like to join our Christmas Bake for Bairns fundraiser, you can read more about how to join in here – and don’t forget to share your photographs on our social media!

Ten steps to Mary’s Traditional Sausage Plait (Cow Pie)

· 8 Cumberland Sausages (skinned)

· Puff Pastry – of course you can buy it! why wouldn’t you?!

· Branston Pickle

· Red Leicester cheese grated

· Beaten egg and a drop of milk for glazing

1. Grease a baking tray and cover with parchment paper

2. Roll out Puff Pastry

3. Place the skinned sausage along the puff pastry two side by side using the 8 sausages

4. Cut pastry on a diagonal either side of the sausage about 1.5 cm strips, same number both sides.

5. Place Branston pickle down the middle of sausages

6. Sprinkle a good amount of cheese on top of the pickle

7. Brush the pastry with beaten egg and plait pastry over the sausages from one side, then the other, until all pieces have been used

8. Brush the complete plait with beaten egg

9. Transfer to baking tray and bake for 35 – 40 mins

10. Try not to eat it the minute if comes out the oven! 

Most importantly enjoy xx

It’s a great feeling to know you’re helping others when doing your Christmas shopping – and shoppers in the North East have really been getting the feel-good factor whilst they choose their gifts, raising almost £1,800 for our charity so far.

Coffee queen, Ruth Oldfield, is the businesswoman who’s made that possible. And she’s hoping more of Children North East’s supporters will join in to push that total over the £2,000 mark.

Ruth, who set up her business, Coffee&Kin, with husband, Mark, six years ago, has just run her first ever online Christmas shopping event, attracting the support of an incredible 1,700 shoppers and 43 businesses.

So far, she’s raised more than £1,774 for Children North East by encouraging buyers to make a donation via JustGiving. Some businesses also donated a percentage of their sales at the event last Thursday. Now she’s decided to keep her Facebook-based Christmas shopping extravaganza ‘open’ along with the JustGiving page so people can continue to shop and donate.

Fancy joining in? Here’s how…

• The Coffee & Kin Christmas Shopping group will be staying open on Facebook until Christmas. If you’d like to join, please click on this link or contact Coffee & Kin via Instagram or Facebook. Shoppers can continue to donate to Children North East via Ruth’s JustGiving page.
• For more ideas of how to give while you shop this Christmas, visit our fundraising section here on the website 

“I’m all about helping people”

Ruth decided to stage the online Christmas shopping night from her home in Bolton near Alnwick to lift local retailers’ spirits and improve the lives of children and young people at the same time.

She says: “Running a small business is really tough even under normal circumstances – you’re so often a one-man-band. I’m all about helping people and I just thought everyone needed a bit of a boost because of Lockdown. I wanted to help small businesses and to do something for our customers as well.”

Ruth says:

I think if you do something genuine, people appreciate that and are supportive. People like to help and do good. We have twin 11-year-old daughters and we really wanted to support a children’s charity that helps young people through the various stages of growing up.

The Oldfields began their online business after being introduced to speciality coffee in Australia, by their brother-in-law, who was then a coffee roaster in Adelaide.

“When we got back from our trip to Oz, we didn’t want to drink instant coffee anymore,” Ruth recalls.

“So, we bought ourselves a coffee machine and enjoyed the convenience and taste of pod coffee. However, it just felt so wrong to throw our used plastic and aluminium pods in the bin as I didn’t want them to end up in landfill or our oceans.

“One day, I turned to Mark and said, why don’t we create our own capsule?”

The couple now supply their compostable and eco-friendly pods to Northumbrian B&Bs, holiday cottages and shops. Coffee & Kin also market their capsules; freshly roasted coffee beans and coffee subscriptions through their website and social media.

Trustees’ Week runs between 2-6 November and is a great opportunity to highlight the work of our Board.

Children North East relies on the expertise of its Trustees to steer the charity’s work and provide good governance.

Each of our Trustees has their own reason for volunteering their time freely, but the Rev Sarah Lunn has a particular motivation for doing so.

John T Lunn

It was Rev Lunn’s great grandfather, John T Lunn, who co-founded our charity way back in 1891 when he and John H Watson established the Poor Children’s Holiday Association out of which Children North East grew.

In Trustees’ Week we asked Rev Lunn to tell us about being a Trustee:

The Rev Sarah

What do you enjoy about being a Trustee? 

I enjoy the collaboration with other very skilled folk who are Trustees alongside me. Together we are passionate about the charity and about continuing to move forward and offer relevant services fit for the present time and into the future.

Are you a Trustee for any other charities/organisations? 

No, but my role as a Church of England Parish Priest (Rev Sarah is vicar for the Tynedale parishes of Humshaugh with Simonburn & Wark and Chollerton with Birtley Gunnerton and Thockrington) is considered as work for a charity so all members of the church Council for which, by virtue of my office, I am Chair, are in effect Trustees.

Thousands of children around the North East have received arts and crafts packs thanks to our successful ‘Scrappy Dooz’ project.

Now we’re appealing for help to create and distribute hundreds more in time for Christmas.

More than 3,000 packs filled with an assortment of stationery, stickers, books and games have been winging their way to children throughout lockdown and since they returned to school. The packs have been made possible thanks to generous funding and donations from individuals and from a range of organisations including two Community Foundations (Tyne & Wear and Northumberland and County Durham); Arts Council England (via Culture Bridge North East) and the National Literacy Trust.

Luke Bramhall, School Research and Delivery Manager for Children North East, said:

“We’ve been delighted with the generous funding and the donations which have included everything from painting by numbers sets to jigsaws, writing pads and coloured pencils – all items that the more disadvantaged families in our region can’t afford to buy.

We’ve really been overwhelmed by the response to our activity packs project and would like to thank all those who have helped and continue to do so.

“We are currently putting together packs that will go out to children in the run-up to Christmas and would welcome donations of items for those.”

In County Durham, children at a community youth project called the Activity Den, benefited from receiving Scrappy Dooz packs.

One mum there, Samantha, whose children aged two and eight, received the packs said it had been ‘like Christmas had come early’ for them.

We found the first lockdown very hard. My husband was placed on furlough for two months. And it was hard keeping the children entertained – there are only so many times you can go out for a walk.

“I’m not creative at all. The kids will say, ‘Can you draw such and such?’ and I can’t, but the packs had step-by-step drawing instructions and the children loved that. I’d give the packs ten out of ten, definitely.”

If you’d like to donate to our Scrappy Dooz packs in time for Christmas, please check out the best ways to do so here. And for more ideas on how you can help babies, children and young people this Christmas, why not visit our Hope For Christmas Appeal?