christmas

Twelfth Night - time to recycle!

As Twelfth Night approaches, and thoughts turn to ‘un-decking’ the halls and taking down the tree, the Woodland Trust is urging everyone to help protect the UK’s woodland by dropping their Christmas cards off at their local M&S store.

For every 1,000 cards recycled in store, M&S will fund the planting of one tree.

The UK is already 8,135 trees richer thanks to customers’ efforts last year – when a staggering 8.1 million cards were dropped into M&S stores. This season, special card collection bins are already in M&S stores* - where they will stay until 31...

Special Christmas care at Exeter hospice

Authored by Hospiscare
Posted: Thu, 01/01/2015 - 11:01pm

Exeter’s hospice was full over Christmas as doctors and nurses cared for 12 people needing acute specialist help. Dawn Berger, pictured, who lives in St Thomas spent a very enjoyable Christmas Day at the hospice after being admitted a week ago.

She said: “My husband and friends visited, I had a wonderful Christmas lunch sitting in my bed, there was a visit from Santa who gave me toiletries and chocolates and like everybody else does at Christmas I fell asleep.” Dawn’s dog Darcy enjoyed spending the day on her bed.

Hospiscare staff helped three patients to go home before...

The cost of not saying thank you for presents

After the last of the Christmas presents have been unwrapped and all the cards have been opened, you may be wise to spare a thought to writing your thank you letters if you want to avoid being given a cheaper gift next year.

New research by Royal Mail has revealed the true cost of not saying thank you for Christmas presents.

Of those people expecting thank you letters, over half (52%) say they’d reduce the cost of their gift by up to £10 next year if they didn’t receive a thank you letter. A further 10% said they’d cut their budget from £21 to £25 if they weren’t thanked...

Charity shop returns £1,000 found in donated boots

Authored by Mary Youlden
Posted: Mon, 12/29/2014 - 12:59pm

A Hospiscare charity shop manager saved Christmas for a Topsham family after finding nearly £1,000 in notes stuffed in a donated pair of men’s boots.

The £980 was still in wads with bands around them after an elderly man had collected them from the bank to give to his family at Christmas.

He stored the money in the boots then forgot and donated them to the local Topsham Hospiscare shop.

Jackie Hulin, shop manager said: “A gentleman brought in two bags, one of clothes and another with boots and he gift aided them.

"I put them to one side and it was only when...

Don't be a victim of telephone fraud

Authored by Mary Youlden
Posted: Thu, 12/25/2014 - 11:21pm

Police are reminding the public to be vigilant about telephone scams and to follow some simple advice to prevent them from becoming a victim of this crime in the lead up to Christmas.

Detectives at Liskeard are investigating two recent reports of fraud from Saltash and Torpoint. On both occasions the callers have claimed to be from high street banks and have conned people into transferring money to them. This scam has applied to both individuals and businesses.

The scammers tell the victims their bank cards have been stolen or cloned and used fraudulently, they are then...

Penguin finds love at the RAMM

One of the penguins at Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery stars in a new online video for Christmas.

Laurie, the lonely Little Blue penguin plays the central character in RAMM’s online Christmas greeting when he explores the Museum …but will he manage to find that special penguin to share his life with?

The Little Blue Penguin – sometimes known as the Fairy Penguin – is the smallest penguin species and originates in New Zealand. In the video, Laurie starts his museum quest with some prehistory, has a chat with one of the museum staff, finds his way to...

Give back to charity this Christmas

Authored by Mary Youlden
Posted: Thu, 12/25/2014 - 12:58pm

This Christmas, British Heart Foundation (BHF) shops are urging South West people to give back by donating their unwanted Christmas presents to charity. The profit raised from BHF shops goes on to fund life-saving research into heart disease.

Over half [64%] of people from the South West said they receive two unwanted Christmas presents every year. With the average price per Christmas gift at £21.75, over £2.7 billion pounds worth of unwanted presents could be donated to charity this year.

South West BHF shops accept all of your unwanted gifts, everything from candles,...

Exeter City stars visit Bramble Ward

Christmas came early for the children and teenagers on Bramble Ward at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital when they received a special visit from the stars of Exeter City Football Club.

With the help of Build-a-Bear, the players from the club gave out dozens of bears, signed merchandise and other presents to the young patients to help bring some Christmas cheer to the ward. The players who visited were Scot Bennett, Pat Baldwin, Matt Oakley, Matt Grimes, David Noble, Ryan Harley, Clinton Morrison and Christy Pym.

The players, who were all dressed in Santa suits, chatted...

Exeter Christmas Street Food Party

Authored by Mary Youlden
Posted: Fri, 12/19/2014 - 12:05pm

Exeter Street Food will be hosting The Christmas Street Food Party at The Quay, Exeter on Tuesday 23 December between 5.30pm and 9.30pm, celebrating the finale of it’s street food events in 2014.

Even if you’re not a foodie between the live music, the ‘festive’ pop-up pub and beautiful light display you should still have a good time.

The live music line up is looking great with singer Charlotte Ward recently featured on BBC, introducing singer Sadie Holer who is only sixteen but has the most amazing voice and twenty-two piece jazz band The Locked Horns headlining. Exeter...

Exeter Airport set for a busy Christmas

Authored by Mary Youlden
Posted: Fri, 12/19/2014 - 10:16am

As the Christmas holidays get underway Exeter Airport is expecting to deal with over 20,000 passengers over the two week festive period.

Many will be heading for the winter warmth of Sharm El Sheikh or the Canary Islands but on Saturday there’s a real winter feel about the departures with ski flights to Switzerland and France and a day trip to Lapland to see Santa. The Disneyland Paris flight is also popular at Christmas.

Matt Roach, Exeter Airport’s managing director said: “Family and friends are getting together around the country at this time of the year and Flybe’s UK...

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