Carlton resident Anne Geerts volunteers for our homelessness charity Emmaus Village Carlton. For the past three years, she’s been preparing all the donated items for our popular Christmas Shop, which sells preloved decorations, festive clothing and gifts.
Our Christmas Shop opens every year from mid-October, inside the Emmaus Village Carlton Home Store.
Preparing for the Christmas Shop is a huge task, Anne explains: “It takes me all year – it doesn’t stop! At the moment I’m volunteering four days every week, just to keep on top of all the Christmassy things that are coming in. We normally get a rush of donations at the start of December each year, as everyone unpacks their decorations, decides to change their colour scheme and give their old stuff to charity!”
Anne works behind the scenes on-site; there are multiple storage rooms, a workroom and a pricing room, just for the Christmas Shop preparation: “I start by unpacking and sorting the donations. All the ornaments are stored on shelves, and I have massive boxes for each type of item. We get thousands of baubles every year, which I colour-match along with all the tinsel. I collect together all the Christmas hats, stockings, nativity sets etc.
“Every set of fairy lights is tested to check it is working. Then I price everything up, ready for it all to be put out on sale. We bring out fresh stock most days, as things sell really quickly.
“I’ve noticed there are trends each year: last year we hardly sold any tinsel, but this year it’s disappearing as fast as we put it out on the shop floor!”
“I love what I do here. I like thinking about Christmas all year because I love Christmas, but mostly it’s nice to know all my hard work is helping to raise money for such a wonderful local charity.”
The Emmaus Village Carlton Christmas Shop (School Lane, Carlton MK43 7LQ) is now open inside our Home Store: Wednesday to Saturday 9.30am – 4.30pm and Sunday 10am – 4pm.