Posted on: 2nd December 2025

Thousands of Christmas seasonal gift tags are being given away to Leeds churches in the weeks before Christmas.

Over the last eleven months volunteers at the City Mission Compassion Centre in Leeds have collected and recycled a total of 4,200 greetings cards.  Many of these cards were donated by churches throughout the city.  Willing card-crafters have cut out an incredible total of 7,200 greetings tags.

Any church, Christian organisation or individual who would like a quantity of tags to use with Christmas presents are being invited to call in and collect them for free from the Leeds City Mission Compassion Centre in Mistress Lane, Armley.

The City Mission is now busy making them available to churches but also welcomes requests from voluntary organisations and the general public who can use either a large or small quantity.

Elderly pensioners who support the work of the City Mission have spent scores of hours throughout 2025 cutting out and crafting the greetings tags. 

Interim Coordinator  Andy Dalton said that the City Mission was grateful for the number of donated cards received throughout the year.   Over 7,200 tags had been produced and these could now be put to good use. He especially invited any church or voluntary organisation holding a Christmas Fayre to come and take a quantity to use for their good cause.

He said that everyone found it very satisfying that something useful had been created from waste. He concluded: “It is very satisfying to see all these greeting tags created from cards that would otherwise just have been thrown away”.

The City Mission is also running a Pop-Up Christmas Charity Shop in the run up to Christmas Eve. 

It has a variety of festive items which will make excellent Christmas presents.  All monies generated will go towards the different outreach projects run by the City Mission.  This includes work with the homeless, prisoners, addicts and marginalized people struggling with life.  It also runs from its premises in Armley a Christian Book & Card Booth which provides, bibles, Christian books and greetings cards Leeds City Mission is one of the oldest charities in the city being in continuous existence since 1837.  It is a multi-church agency and is located in Mistress Lane diagonally opposite Armley Library.

The Christmas seasonal gift tags are free. 

The City Mission Compassion Centre is open Mondays to Fridays 10am to 3pm until Christmas.  Telephone 0113 345 3118 or e-mail lcm1837@gmail.com.

Accompanying photographs show the Leeds City Mission Compassion Centre in Armley plus Coordinator Andy Dalton and volunteer Ann Shelley with some of the christmas greetings tags