People wanting to drop off donations or families looking to register with the Langley Christmas Bureau will have to head to its new location.
It is set up for the holiday season at 20245 Industrial Ave., a City-owned building that will be home to the all-volunteer bureau until it ceases operation for 2024 on Dec. 17.
Co-ordinator Patty Lester said the location offers the organization ample room to do its work. Already, rooms are filling with toys sorted by age and gender, and by the time families start showing up to pick gifts for their children, the place will be awash in toys and more to meet the need.
"Last year, we had 938 families and 2,049 children that we looked after," she noted. "So we're expecting to increase only because, you know, everything is costing more."
There's also space set up at the bureau for the Langley Literacy Network which provides books for the families that use the bureau.
"I think the families are really, really appreciative of it," Lester said of the literacy network book giveaway. "And I know that it's a really good working relationship with us."
Families that are not sponsored are able to receive gifts for their children from birth to age 18 as well as some gift cards to buy the foods they want. Sponsored families are provided gifts and foods by the people or businesses that signed up to sponsor them. Guidelines for sponsorship are on the bureau website.
The Langley City main office is open Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. It will also be open Saturdays, Nov. 23 and Dec. 7, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Aldergrove satellite office is located in the Meals on Wheels building, 2900 272 St., to accept registrations. It is open Wednesdays in November from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
In years past, the bureau had a booth set up in Willowbrook Shopping Centre to accept donations but that stopped pre-COVID. The bureau will be back in the mall this holiday season for three days.
"We're going to be there on the 29th and 30th [of November] and 1st of December," Lester noted. "And we're gonna have a table set up very close to customer service. So close to where Santa is."
For more on the Christmas bureau, go to langleychristmasbureau.com or call 604-530-3001. Toy depot days (when families pick up gifts) will be Dec. 12, 13, 16 and 17. After that, the bureau closes for another year.
People interested in helping out can make donations at the office on Industrial Avenue, go through the website, stop by the booth in Willowbrook mall on the three days it's there, or attend the Christmas Wish Breakfast on Nov. 26 at Newlands Golf Course.
