Actress, radio presenter and celebrity mum Gemma Atkinson has teamed up with her three-year-old daughter, Mia, to help support Family Action’s annual Christmas campaign, Make Theirs Magic, taking time out to help gift wrap some of the thousands of toys being donated by the Fisher-Price® brand to be given to families around the UK who need a helping hand this year.

The UK Fisher-Price™ brand team has donated 2,000 of their toys to the appeal, that will be distributed to families at Family Action’s services around the UK in the lead up to Christmas. All of the toys donated by the brand have been selected because of their early years developmental benefits to children, with each toy having been specially developed at the Fisher-Price™ Play Lab – a hi-tech toy testing facility in the US where babies and young children test out toys that have been created and developed by Early Childhood Development experts.

As part of Make Theirs Magic, a new online hub has been launched which includes real-life stories, resources for families at Christmas and links on how to get involved or get more support at https://www.family-action.org.uk/get-involved/make-theirs-magic/. Resources include accessible ways for parents or caregivers to play with their children over the festive period, including Christmas-based sensory play for babies and festive children’s crafts to create fun and memorable moments, whilst also helping with children’s development and boosting parents’ confidence to play.

In a heart-warming video recorded at their family home, Gemma Atkinson and her daughter Mia are shown creating their own Christmas wrapping paper, a fun way to ‘Make Theirs Magic’, with them both getting creative using a potato and some poster paint to print onto paper. The paper they created was then used to wrap up some of the toys donated by the Fisher-Price® brand for the appeal.

Gemma Atkinson said: “I’m supporting the ‘Make Theirs Magic’ campaign because as a mum myself, I know the challenges that parents face when it comes to certain times of the year, and I just think every family could do with a helping hand, especially at Christmas. The fact that so many children across the UK don’t necessarily get as many toys as others, it’s great that the Make Theirs Magic campaign can help to even things out, and I just think as an annual toy appeal, it’s a wonderful positive thing to be involved in. I can’t wait to hear from the families who received these Fisher-Price® toys that we helped to wrap this Christmas, and hopefully a lot more children will have a better Christmas because of this”.

Dr. Lisa Lohiser, Early Childhood Development expert at the Fisher-Price™ Play Lab, added: “All of us at the Fisher-Price™ Play Lab are proud to be supporting the Family Action Make Theirs Magic campaign this year! Playing with the right toys not only helps make Christmas magical, but they can also help children reach all their important milestones. The toys we’ve selected for this donation are specially designed to do just that—they’re intuitive to play with and also adapt as children grow. We hope these toys help families enjoy a magical Christmas filled with play, surprise and delight!”