Grangemouth's Wallace Street Winter Wonderland coins in £800 for Doddie Weir's charity

Nicole Ritchie, 31, and her children Freya, 11, and Jorja, 3, were able to class themselves as elves after helping deliver hundreds of letters to Father Christmas giving

him the lowdown on what children in the area will be hoping to find under their Christmas trees this year.

Freya and Jorja’s grandparents William and Senga Morris are old hands at spreading Christmas cheer through their eye catching Wallace Street Winter Wonderland in Grangemouth, which has raised hundreds of pounds for charities – including Alzheimer’s Scotland, Strathcarron Hospice and CHAS – over the last few years.

This year’s charity is the My Name'5 Doddie Foundation, named in memory of Scottish rugby legend Doddie Weir, which aims to funding research to find effective

treatments to battle motor neuron disease.

The family helped raise a total of £779.18 for the charity and rounded that up to an even £800.

A Wallace Street Winter Wonderland spokesperson said: “We would just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who came to see our display and donated to My Name'5 Doddie Foundation

“We also thank Malky Finlayson for his kind donation of two hand made wooden Christmas trees to add to our display.”

Santa’s postbox was introduced to the Winter Wonderland a couple of years ago and is proving popular again this year, with children from outside the Grangemouth area turning up to post their messages to the North Pole’s most famous resident.

The postbox, which was put in place on December 1, was taken away a few days before Christmas after seeing well over 200 letters and messages from youngsters all over the area posted through its slot.

Nicole said: “Seeing all the private messages I have received telling me how excited the children are to receive a reply from Santa and finding out our final total raised for the charity makes all the hard work worthwhile.”