A BARRHEAD dessert parlour’s gift drive is set to sprinkle some Christmas magic on the festive experience for vulnerable children.

After issuing a plea for support, Ice & Cream, in Cross Arthurlie Street, has amassed around 80 bags of presents.

This means a number of young people in the local area who faced a Christmas without gifts will now have a nice surprise to wake up to on December 25.

Jennifer Cairns, 34, who runs the shop with her partner Zubair Arshad, handed the collection over to Alexis Maitland, of East Renfrewshire Women’s Aid.

Alexis, who is a children and young person support worker, told the Barrhead News: “It was really overwhelming to see the amount of gifts that had been donated.

“It shows great community spirit that people are willing to help the families we support when they are most in need.

“Jennifer has done an amazing job organising this and we are incredibly grateful.”

The presents were donated by kind-hearted staff and customers after the business introduced a tree covered with gift tags which people could select.

On each tag was a child’s age and a description of the kind of present he or she would like for Christmas.

Sad at the thought of kids going without at this time of year, Jennifer originally aimed to collect 40 presents, so she was delighted to go far beyond this target.

She added: “It feels good to know there will now be kids waking up to gifts that they wouldn’t have been having.

“I never expected this many to come in and I’m more than happy with the amount received.

“A lot of people took more than one tag, which made a big difference.

“I want to say thanks to everybody for taking part.

“I’d really like to do it again next year.”