Besom Christmas Hampers 2024

Every year, the Besom charity organise over 200 hundred hampers given to families and single people in York who would otherwise struggle over the Christmas period.

This year at The Belfrey, we’re partnering with them again, so WHAT CAN WE DO?

PRAY  – Please pray for the Besom team. Giving hampers involves a lot of coordination, time and effort. All those involved absolutely love it, but please pray for strength and energy for the team. Please pray for those making up hampers, that God will prompt them to put things in that are just right for the families they are going to, despite them having not met before. Pray that those who receive hampers will know the unending love of God and the true meaning of Christmas.

MAKE A HAMPER  – 

  • get together as a Belfrey group, group of friends, family or yourself

  • fill in the form here to sign up to make a hamper

  • choose whether you’d like to make for a large or small family, a single person, people with pets or a type of recipient who’s on your heart. Don’t be afraid to be specific, in previous years we’ve had some amazing matches between makers and recipients

  • need some ideas for what to put in your hamper? Click here (but generally hampers should be a mixture of food (nothing alcoholic please), and gifts selected for the family’s likes and dislikes)

  • in mid-late November, Besom will get back in touch with a family or individual who has been referred to them. You can start collecting items before that though, if you like

  • Besom would love you to deliver the hamper to the recipient yourself! This is an amazing way to connect with the individual or family, chat with them about why you’re doing this and even invite them along to one of The Belfrey’s Christmas services or events

  • to be able to deliver directly, you’ll need to provide the name of a referee when you fill out your sign up form (your Belfrey Group leader or one of the clergy can act as this). Besom will also try and match you with someone in your preferred area for delivery. You can deliver any time up till Christmas Eve!

  • we’d love to hear testimonies of how it went delivering your hampers to your recipients. Please do send these to claire.treherne@belfrey.org. We have seen God move in incredible ways through these relationships being built and we are excited to see what he will do this year!

Match-funding from the Belfrey Social Transformation fund up to a maximum of £100 is available again, so why not make two? Your Belfrey Group leader will be sent a link for the ChurchSuite form which they can use to apply for the funding.

BE A DELIVER-ER!  Spend a morning, afternoon or all day being on one of The Besom’s delivery teams. Besom will be doing deliveries on varying days this year. (They do require a reference for this role). More info and sign up here.

BE A WRAPPER – Come and spend some time packing and wrapping. Besom will be doing this on varying days at their storage space in Clifton Moor.  Some people like to give items towards a hamper, so they often need people to pack them for specific families/individuals. The more the merrier! More info and sign up here.

Thank you for reading this far, and hopefully, we’ve answered all your questions, but if not, please do contact claire.treherne@belfrey.org or info@thebesominyork.co.uk.