Kitmas '26: the gift of football

Aim

Help us give a football shirt to a child who might not get a present this Christmas.

A shirt can make a Christmas

Ask any football fan about their first proper kit and you'll probably get a smile. You remember the shirt, who gave it to you, and how you wouldn't take it off for days.

This Christmas, many children won't get that moment. Money is tighter than ever for families, and 1 in 5 parents and carers have considered cancelling Christmas because they can't afford it. Replica shirts are a long way out of reach: a child's shirt from a top club now costs around £60 to £70.

Kitmas exists to change that, one shirt and one child at a time.

How it started

We're Paul and Lizzie Watson. Paul is a football podcaster and campaigner who has spent his career championing football as a force for good: coaching the tiny Pacific island of Pohnpei's national team (and writing a book about it, Up Pohnpei), running a club in Mongolia and organising the CONIFA World Football Cup in London for teams outside FIFA.

In November 2020, Paul had ten new Manchester United shirts and nowhere to send them. That year, lots of local parents were struggling to pay for presents, so we took the shirts to our local food bank. Paul's brother, the comedian Mark Watson, shared the idea, people started sending shirts and money, and soon our hallway was full of parcels and the postman was helping us carry them in.

Six years later, our kitchen table still turns into a sorting depot every December.

What we've done together

• Over £100,000 raised since 2020
• Around 6,600 shirts given to young fans
• 20+ towns and cities reached through community centres, food banks and schools: London, Bristol, Stroud, Gloucester, Glasgow, Newcastle, Burnley, Brighton, Exeter, Belfast, Cheltenham, Leeds, Bedford, Glamorgan, Liverpool, Newquay, Hastings, Leicester, Nottingham and Norwich

This is our seventh Kitmas, and we want it to be our biggest yet.

Three ways to help

1. Donate money

Every pound goes on brand-new shirts, which local partners hand out so children can open them on Christmas Day. Just £20 puts a brand-new shirt into a child's hands on Christmas Day. The more we raise, the more children we reach.

2. Donate a shirt

Plenty of good shirts sit in drawers once children grow out of them. We'll gladly take any football shirt in very good or like-new condition. Please email: [email protected]

3. Spread the word

Share this page with your group chat, your five-a-side team, your club or your work. Every share could mean another shirt under a tree.

Our school hub: Ernulf Academy

Michael Cox, Vice Principal at Ernulf Academy in St Neots, has backed Kitmas from the start and is now a key part of the team. Every December his school becomes our main collection and distribution hub.

Students collect, sort, wrap and send out the shirts to children around the country. They've even talked about Kitmas on the radio and on ITV News. As Head Scholar Tulah put it: "Christmas is a time for giving and I couldn't wait to get involved and support this brilliant initiative."

We're a small team with no big overheads, and a lot of help from friends, family and brilliant young volunteers. We just want more children to know the feeling of pulling on a new shirt.

In the press

• BBC News: Football 'Kitmas' plea for disadvantaged children
• BBC News: Merry Kitmas as school helps gift football shirts
• The Independent: Football is failing kids, so I invented 'Kitmas'
• The Mirror: Couple plan to give football shirts to 2,000 kids who may not receive Christmas gifts
• Also covered by ITV News, The Big Issue, The Scotsman, NationalWorld and the Express & Star

Thank you

We're so grateful for every pound, every shirt and every share. Merry Kitmas!

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 10th December 2026 at 9:48am