Squire’s Garden Centres presented cheques totalling £13,454 to various charities across the South East, including The National Autistic Society, Princess Alice Hospice and Shooting Star Chase Children’s Hospice.

The donations were collected from customers who made charity donations in return for a free visit to Santa at Squire’s centres during the Christmas period.

Shoppers were generous with their pounds and were more than happy to see well deserving and progressive local charities benefit from their donations.

 “Our free grotto was incredibly popular and it was great to see our customers show their appreciation,” said Sarah Squire, Deputy Chairman at Squire’s.  

“Our garden centre staff make their own choice when it comes to which charity to support through the grotto and we certainly agree that each local charity selected very much deserved the wonderful support shown by the local community.”

The generosity didn’t just end with the free grotto donations; three of the centres invited their local charity to exclusive previews of the new Magical Grotto Experience with Magic show, and the new Christmas Circus Extravaganza which took place at Squire’s Garden Centre in Washington. Fun was had by all those who attended the events and it certainly kick started a memorable festive season.

Lastly a charity tombola was organised by Squire’s Garden Centre in Shepperton which took place during the festive shopper evening. A fantastic sum of money was raised and it was great to see the team at Shepperton put their creative fund raising ideas into action.

Squire's Badshot Lea picked two Greatest Christmas Awards, organised by GTN, earlier in January.