THREE selfless children have been spreading Christmas cheer by donating presents to residents at a care home.

Bailey and Destiny Skingle and their cousin Devon Oliver have spent December collecting donations for Christmas bags to take to Forest Home care home in Sible Hedingham.

The trio donated a total of 32 Christmas bags filled with festive goodies to the residents on Saturday.

Lynda Clarke, Bailey and Destiny's mum, said: "We arrived during the Christmas family party, Bailey, Devon & Destiny were welcomed into the home with a huge round of applause.

"There were tears from some residents who were over joyed with their gifts as well as cuddles and smiles from others.

"Every resident was given a handmade card signed by the children, a hand crochet lap blanket and we were kindly given ten hand knitted little Christmas puddings filled with a Terry's Chocolate Orange made by Sheelagh Harman so a special thanks to her.

"We must also say a huge thank you to every else who donated gifts for such a worth cause.

"A thank you also to Mary Skingle, Braintree, who kindly made up a complete seven bags and donated numerous balls of wool.

"The children are already thinking of ways they can extend this for next year."

The idea was thought up by Bailey, aged 13, who decided he wanted to do something special for the elderly over Christmas.

Last year Bailey, Destiny, 9, and Devon, 12, collected Christmas boxes for the residents.

They decided to put the presents in bag to make it easier for the residents with restricted movements.

A spokesman from Forest Home said: "The residents loved the Children coming in again this Christmas with even bigger and better parcels than last year.

"They love seeing the children and are very grateful for the effort that everyone goes to.

"We would like to thank everyone for their kind donations and everyone that helped the children put these together.

"Thank you also to Hedingham School's art department for the picture frames with the lovely art work in them."

Proud mum, Lynda, added: "Moving forward I believe this will now become a yearly tradition."