With Christmas two weeks away, the Christmas Exchange is approximately $50,000 short of where they would like to be to assist everyone already on the list.

“Last year we were able to help 8,044 families. So far this year we have 8,004 families on the list and are receiving more names everyday” said Marilyn Matheson, Executive Director of the Exchange.

For the past several years Christmas Exchange has been able to help everyone on the list. In order to do the same this year another $50,000 is needed.

On Friday November 17th, The Fairy Princess paraded through Carlingwood Shopping Centre surrounded by little fairy princesses in training who were in their best dresses and wings. The parade, led by the Amabile Singers of Nepean, was joined by the Hot 89.9 Morning Hot Tub Crew, Corey Ginther from CJOH, and The Hon. Jim Watson MPP among others, who collected donations for the Christmas Exchange as they passed holiday shoppers.

The parade came to an end at Santa’s throne where he crowned the Fairy Princess and thanked her for her years of hard work in helping him get from one place to the next. The Fairy Princess will share Santa’s workshop area this year where she will be available for holiday pictures. 10% from every picture taken with the Fairy Princess will be donated to the Christmas Exchange.

It was a record-breaking year for the Christmas Cheer campaign! On Saturday December 2nd, $180,200 was pledged to assist the Christmas Exchange and the Ottawa Food Bank. The Broadcast is a 9-hour radiothon that features a number of local celebrities, politicians, CFRA personalities, and musical guests. This year marked the 56th and most successful year of this Christmas tradition on CFR A 580

December 2nd was also the day of Swiss Chalet’s Community Day, where a $1 was donated to the Christmas Exchange for every Festive Special and Quarter Chicken Dinner sold. Local Swiss Chalet’s raised an amazing $4,047 this year.

The Christmas Cheer Breakfast, held Friday December 8th, earned $104, 750. The breakfast, held at the Westin, was the place to be with local celebrities and politicians serving the breakfast to everyone in attendance. Some of the people spotted in the Westin apron varied from Team 1200’s Stuntman Stu, our co- chair’s Pat Woodcock and Melanie Reid-Woodcock, the new Mayor Larry O’Brien, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, The Hon. Jim Watson MPP, and The Hon John Baird, MP and Treasury Board President.

Along with the breakfast, came the tradition of the Ottawa Police and RCMP selling arm lengths of raffle tickets. It’s rumoured that Prime Minister Stephen Harper even bought an arm’s length when he made a brief appearance.

On Saturday December 9th, volunteers and local politicians sporting Santa hats were at Ottawa area Beer Stores asking people to donate their empties to the Christmas Exchange. Almost $9,000 was raised in returned bottles.

There’s a new section to our website to help you with holiday crafts and cooking. In this corner of our site you’ll find delicious holiday recipes by Gay Cook, a food columnist for the Ottawa Citizen and author of her own cookbook, Kitchen Basics & Beyond. There’s also the craft section that’s filled with fun and affordable crafts suitable for all ages.

Go Check them out today! And let us know how they turn out, we’d love hear about your crafting experiences and to see them too.

If your client has missed their appointment they do not need to get a new one. While we prefer that they go during their appointment time, they can go anytime after their appointment date as long as they have their confirmation number with them.


For agencies doing duplicate checking we will be doing duplicate checks until the 21st of December.

For Agencies Picking Up Toys

You will be receiving a call from the Toy Centre on when to pick-up toys for your clients. If a client has been called about an appointment it means that another agency may have sent in an application for toys for them and the other agency indicated that the client should pick-up the toys. If you receive an email or fax indicating that the toy centre could not confirm this appointment, you can still pick-up for that client by bringing the email/fax information with you. If you receive an email/fax saying that the appointment has been confirmed. Tell your client not to pick-up the toys. Bring their confirmation number and appointment information with you when you go to pick-up the rest of the toys. You can continue to send your toy centre referrals to the Christmas Exchange until Dec 14th.

Our holiday event season is over for yet another year. Thank you to our sponsors and everyone who participated and helped to make our 2006 events the success they were.

Check back in the New Year for information on the April 28th Gala with the Ottawa Food Bank and our other summer events.

On behalf of the thousands of families being helped this year, many thanks to the dedicated volunteers who have been instrumental in getting our work done. Volunteers entered referral data, make calls about Toy Centre appointments, delivered and picked up signs for the Beer Stores, delivered Trees of Hope, helped with mailings and answering phones, picked up coins at schools and helped out with our fundraising events. But their work is not done.

Vouchers need to be stuffed and mailed December 14th and 15th, and the hampers will be delivered December 21st. If you can help out with either of these activities, please give Sue Goddard a call at 613-226-6434 ext 226.

Congratulations to our winner, Angela Wassegijig,who will be receiving a Rogers Video coupon book and McDonald’s gift certificates.

To win, Angela knew that Christmas Exchange helped 10 971 children under the age of 18 in 2005. That’s almost half of the 22 328 people that were helped last year by us.

This time we want you to tell us in what year the Christmas Exchange received it’s first $5 donation. Was it in

1. 1915
2. 1930
3. 1942
4. 1975