Toy & Book Appeal FAQs

Donations of toys and books are made by generous supporters like you all over the country. In addition, we purchase toys and books using funds donated to the Toy & Book Appeal, and through our online gift catalogue. Volunteers then sort, pack and deliver the gifts to disadvantaged families all over Australia, ready for Christmas morning.

This year we are aiming to deliver gifts to 32,550 children and your support will help us do that.

Funds raised through the online gift catalogue are used to purchase and deliver gifts for children in need.

There are drop-off locations around the country where you can deliver your gift to. To find your closest venue and opening times, please refer to the list of Gift Collection sites, or on the back of your Donated Gift Form.

Unfortunately, due to limited resources, we are unable to pick up your donated gifts.

Unwrapped gifts only please. While it may seem helpful to wrap your gift, this often creates problems in the sorting and packing process. It also mean that parents don’t get to see or wrap the gift for their child.  

Unfortunately we aren’t able to accept secondhand or handmade toys. For some of our children, these will be the only gifts they receive this Christmas, so we want these to be brand new special gifts just for them.

Absolutely! We just ask that you include the required batteries with the toy. Batteries can be costly and this would be an additional cost for the family during an already stressful and expensive time.

First you need to register online. This gives you access to a range of downloadable resources you can use to promote your hosted gift collection.

Your gifts are given to families on our Learning for Life program. Toy and Book Packs are offered to children aged 0-12 years. This year we have a shortage of gifts for boys and girls between the ages of 6-12 years.

Donations of new toys and books help us ensure that they are of good quality and usable when they are opened on Christmas morning.  This year we have a shortage of main toys for boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 12 years. 

This includes large quality gifts that can also be a family sharing gift. Examples include; Board games, Sports Equipment (quality soccer ball, cricket set) backpack with lunch box and drinks bottle.

Don’t forget that your gift should be ready to play with as soon as it’s opened on Christmas morning.

When building a pack, There are 3 items we use to complete a pack. 

1 x MAIN TOY 

Large quality gift. Can also be a family sharing gift. Examples include; Board games, Sports Equipment (quality soccer ball, cricket set) backpack with lunch box and drinks bottle  


1 x FILLER TOY

A quality stocking filler. Examples include; Arts & Craft Set, Puzzles, Activity books  


1 x BOOK

Reading and picture books  

You can check out our gift suggestions for this year here.  

It’s important that we provide families with appropriate gifts for Christmas. We have a number of items we can’t accept because they prove difficult to pack, or are not appropriate for a wide range of children. Repurposing the items below can end up costing us money. Money we’d rather use to provide more toys and books. 

Click here for items we are unable to accept.

Every year, we deliver Christmas gifts to more Australian children, and more than 3,000 volunteers spend over 12,000 hours packing and preparing toys and books ready for delivery. Keeping up with food, drinks and packing supplies can be a costly exercise.

Thankfully, we receive a lot of support from generous businesses, who donate catering, warehousing, freight and storage, which helps keep our costs low. If you think you can help, please drop us a line at toyandbook@thesmithfamily.com.au

Our Learning for Life program provides emotional, practical and financial support to help disadvantaged children and young people with their education. Our support starts in the early years of learning development and continues through primary and high school. Our programs help build skills, knowledge, motivation, self-belief and a network of positive relationships with parents, peers and significant others. This support increases a young person’s likelihood of remaining engaged with school, completing Year 12 and developing realistic and informed study and career pathways for life beyond the school gate.