toyservice | Brum Unitarians

A note to parents/carers planning to attend The Toy Service, this coming Sunday (7th December 2025)

Here is information to help you and your child(ren) prepare for The Toy Service this Sunday.

We will be collecting in pre-loved teddies, and pre-loved soft toys, which will go to a mix of The Teddy Trust and Loved Before. See below for how we are going to do this, and the role of the children before and during the gathering.

The Teddy Trust is a charity which collects in pre-loved teddy bears and distributes them through partners around the world to reach children who have suffered war, starvation or abuse. They take only teddy-bears. The bears must be in good condition (they do not need to be new) and they must be silent, i.e. no bells or internal noise-making mechanisms.

Loved Before is the world’s first “soft toy adoption agency”, born when its founder discovered that 8 million soft toys a year are sent to landfill. They repackage and sell on pre-loved soft toys, and their ultimate mission is about a broader change in consumer mindsets around production and sustainability. They accept any pre-loved soft toy in good condition.

Please bring with you on Sunday:

A teddy and/or soft toy (in good condition) that your child is willing to donate.

How it will work during the service:

Your child will be invited to keep their teddy/soft toy with them for the first part of the service, until Time For All Ages, which comes after the greeting.

As usual, in Time For All Ages the children will be invited to sit at the front for a story.

After the story, the children’s leaders will bring our ‘Teddy Truck’ up to the stage!The children will be asked if they have a teddy or toy that they have brought with them today to give away. If they want to, they can speak into the microphone to share a bit about their teddy/soft toy, such as its name or where they got it from - and perhaps what they hope their toy’s next adventure will be!

They will then be invited to place their teddies or soft toys inside the ‘Teddy Truck’, which will stay on the stage for the remainder of the service.

The children will then follow the children’s leaders out into the hall, for a Christmas-tree decorating activity.

As usual, children and their parents/carers are welcome to move between the hall and the main gathering as needed, throughout.

Ideas for preparing or responding to the service:

It is totally up to you how you talk to your child about this, depending on what works for you, and your child’s age. You may want to talk to them about one or more of the themes which surround the activity. These can be spoken about in very age-appropriate terms, such as simply talking about ‘fairness’ (e.g. having more than we need, compared to some children who do not have their own teddy). For younger children you could introduce some excitement by talking about the teddies and soft toys’ new lives in which they will go on to be loved in a new home.

You could talk about other (non-material) gifts that we can give to each other, such as our attention, our knowledge, and our time, and who we might give these to.

With older children, you could maybe research and explore together what types of organisation in your local area are in need of donations, and discuss how donations are distributed, and what can, and can’t, be recycled. You could potentially do some financial education around it - talking about building in donating money as a regular part of your income, maybe creating a ‘piggy bank’ that is for a community cause or charity that makes a difference to other people, instead of for your child.

It is flexible enough to be a way of talking about all sorts of issues, depending on what works for you.

Bearing in mind the typical age of the children attending our gatherings currently sits at about 5 years old, however you choose to talk to them about it we recommend you check that they really are prepared to part with the teddy/soft toy that they bring!