An Aberdeen charity has desperately appealed for donations after revealing 3,800 kids have been registered to receive a gift via the Giving Tree.
For the last 30 years, Instant Neighbour has run the Giving Tree scheme, which allows the public to pick a gift tag from one of the many trees dotted around public spaces.
The tags feature an age and sex of a child who may otherwise not have anything to open on Christmas morning.
But this year, there has been a huge drop in donations and the charity has admitted it is 800 gifts short with just two weeks to go.
One of the trees on display in a shopping centre had 800 tags on it, but only 300 were picked.
Amazon wishlist set up for last-minute help
While Rosie Green, leader of the Giving Tree scheme, thanked the public for their kindness and support, she appealed for some last-minute help.
In particular, the charity is short of gifts for those aged 13 to 18, so an Amazon wish list has been created with items that people can purchase.
The team are also concerned that as several organisations use the term Giving Tree, people may be sending their purchased gift to the wrong place.
Scot Livingstone, from Instant Neighbour, also believes with all the uncertainty around Covid that people may just not have been out to pick up a tag.
“We think a lot of people are looking after themselves and just being very careful,” she said.
“We don’t know what is going to happen this Christmas with lockdown and a new variant, so there that could also be an element of that as well.”
“We have also had instances where other charities have contacted us saying that someone has dropped off a Giving Tree gift, but it’s your Giving Tree gift.
“It might be the case that people think they are giving to us but they’re not. We have a strategy that we know works, it has just been an uphill struggle this year.”