A selfless couple have revealed they are planning on giving away thousands of football shirts to children who may not receive Christmas present s this year.
With the cost of living crisis at the forefront of a lot of families minds this year, many households may not be able to afford gifts this year.
And so, Paul and Lizzie Watson, both 38, heartwarmingly plan on giving 2,000 football shirts to children across the UK.
In order to achieve this, the 38-year-olds have raised more than £8,600 so far for their 'Kitmas' initiative - which is aimed at distributing shirts to schools, community centres and food banks across Britain.
The pair - who share two sons together; five-year-old Luca and 18-month-old Benji – started their campaign in 2020, where they organised 1,000 shirts to be dished out.
The figure increased to 2,000 last year, and now the pair are hoping that they will ramp up the figures once more.
Speaking about their project, the couple from Stroud, Gloucestershire, say that they hope the shirts will not only give children who receive them 'a sense of identity', but will also ease the pressure on parents.
Paul said: "Growing up, we didn’t always get a football shirt – it was like the pinnacle of a present – but if you did, it was like that was your Christmas made, I still remember what that felt like.
"And I think what’s so sad now is that most families cannot buy football shirts for their children because the cost is so ridiculous. It’s a way of football saying: ‘This isn’t for you’."
He went on to add: "But more than anything else, (getting a shirt) is like a sense of identity – it’s a sense that you are part of something, and that’s what football is.
"It’s a way of saying, 'You’re part of this and you belong.'"
The cost of living crisis has impacted a lot of Brits, and so the pair hope that their Kitmas initiative will help reduce the pressure on parents.
Paul went on to add: "We’re not going to be able to pay people’s heating bills, there’s other amazing people out there doing stuff like that.
"But what we can do is send some football shirts. (We are) just doing what is possible."
James Corden is even backing the initiative; recently donating £2,000 – a figure which will fund at least 100 shirts.
Kitmas - which is also supported by the donation of shirts as well as money to buy them - has also inspired other groups around the country to do their own ‘spin-offs’ – including clubs such as Cheltenham Town and Frome Town.
Goal Diggers FC, a non-profit club which makes football more avaliable to all women and non-binary people in east London, have also set up their own Kitmas.
PR manager and stand up comedian Vix Leyton said: "It is so cool to see people taking this and running with it, particularly when it is making football more accessible to little girls."
To find out more about Kitmas 2022, go to: http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/kitmas-2022.
