Kind-hearted Banbury family hand out almost 700 Christmas gifts after converting garage into Santa's grotto again

Community hero and founder of the Banbury Lunch Box Project, Prabhu Natarajan, and his family transformed their garage into a temporary grotto for the fourth Christmas last month.

The household, helped by neighbours, invited families to their home on Kenilworth Way on December 23 to enjoy the free Santa’s grotto, take a gift, and meet with Father Christmas.

Around 80 families visited the grotto and took toys, food hampers, chocolate selection boxes, and household items, which were kindly generously donated by the residents of Banbury.

Prabhu said: “As more families were seeking help this Christmas in various social media groups, especially with toys and gifts for their children, we thought we would do it on a larger scale this year.

"However, we didn’t think we would run the grotto again this year as we are moving house and in the middle of packing, but my wife Shilpa insisted that we continue with it.

"Thankfully, the people of Banbury donated an incredible amount of toys, food hampers, children’s books, and toiletry items to make the grotto successful once again. I would like to thank them, along with Banbury Mayor Fiaz Ahmed, who spent time helping out, and Daisy Hone, who controlled the traffic dressed as an elf."

The remaining toys and gifts have been donated to the Kingdom Matters charity to give out to more families and children.

Prabhu plans on registering his Lunch Box Project with the Charity Commission this year, so the group can expand and help more families.