Sleigh Rounds

We need a house to house collection license from Swale Borough Council. These need to be applied for each year and cover the whole sleigh round period for that year.

We typically start the sleigh rounds one week after Switch On Day in order to give time for volunteers to recover from that.

A sleigh round typically runs from 6pm to about 8:30pm in weekends and earlier on Saturdays.

We publicise each sleigh round on our social media account but we do not announce the exact routes, only the general area. We do not announce the starting point because we do not want large crowds to assemble because small children tend to run out in the road and in front of the sleigh. Also we do not want to disappoint children who arrive expecting to see Santa in the sleigh but instead see the sleigh being set up and Santa possibly arriving in a car first.

We also only announce rounds on the same day as the round and not before.

We do not do rounds on Sundays in order to give the volunteers some time off to rest.

Equipment

The Santa Sleigh, built from a converted trailer.

Hand-held bell(s). Used alongside the music to remind residents that we are in the street.

Collection buckets. Ours are red with a white lid with a slot for the coins. Most sleigh rounds need between 3 and 6 buckets depending on the number of volunteers.

Reflective jackets - ours are red with silver reflective strips, and specifically include the word "VOLUNTEER" because we want it to be clear that we are not paid and are not working for the local council.

Name badges with lanyards. Also printed on the badges should be the collection licence number as issued by the local council. The relevant text on our badges at the time of writing is: "House to house permit 24/501258/HTHCOL issued by Swale Borough Council in accordance with House to House Collections Act 1939. Pass valid only on 18.11.2024 – 23.12.2024"

Towing socket adapter (13-pin to 7-pin). Our sleigh has a 7-pin plug for its lights, which fits most cars. However, some newer cars only have a 13-pin socket so we occasionally need an adapter.

Credit-card reader for those people who want to donate but don't have cash on them.

Printed maps for the driver and the sleigh round leader. We use [Streetmap.co.uk] and not Google Maps because Streetmap produces maps with dark lines along the edges of roads which makes them much easier to read when printed.

Roles

Some of the organisation roles can be done by the same person.

Sleigh round leader - is in overall charge of the sleigh round and walks alongside the sleigh with the collectors. This is a separate role and cannot be done by the driver or Santa. The driver cannot see what is going on behind. Santa is also too busy to give continual instructions and if surrounded by children cannot be expected to give instructions to move to the next street, for instance.

Driver - drives the vehicle towing the sleigh.

Collectors - volunteers who accompany the sleigh with collectin

Route planner - draws out maps of the routes to give to the driver and the sleigh round leader.

Driver rota - organises drivers to be available for the various sleigh rounds. Sleigh rounds will run for around 4 weeks and generally at least 5 nights a week so

Santa rota - same as Driver rota but for the Santas.

Sleigh storage and charging - when the sleigh is collected and returned from and to its place of storage there needs to be someone there to look after it. The drivers only have knowledge of towing and will not know about the tasks needed to maintain the sleigh.

Sleigh Tasks

When the sleigh is returned the following needs to be done by someone whose job this is. The volunteer drivers will not know how to do this.

Putting wheel chocks in place.
Turning off the power.
Connecting the battery charger.
Covering up the sleigh with a tarpaulin to protect from rain.
Noting or doing any repairs needed.