This Christmas, the Kiwi Kids’ Bookstore is inviting the North Canterbury community to support Community Wellbeing North Canterbury by donating a gift that lasts far beyond the holidays for local children and teens: a brand-new book, written and illustrated here at home.
The Kiwi Kids’ Bookstore is one of more than 60 New Zealand bookshops participating in this year’s Kiwi Christmas Books donation campaign and all new books donated via the Kiwi Kids’ Bookstore will support North Canterbury rangatahi and tamariki through the Community Wellbeing North Canterbury Trust.
Bookstore owner and children’s book author Kate Gordon-Smith has recently moved to North Canterbury and is delighted to be able to support her new community.
“For the past two years, we’ve participated in the Kiwi Christmas Books donation scheme working with community support groups around Wanaka,” says Gordon-Smith.
“We’ve had a warm welcome from Community Wellbeing North Canterbury and are delighted to support their mahi with families across the region.”
Gordon-Smith says the Kiwi Christmas Books campaign is a simple but powerful way to make Christmas happier for our children and teens, and encourage a love of reading.
“A gifted book is a small but meaningful way to bring joy and support literacy of our young people, from babies and toddlers enjoying a story being read aloud to them, to independent readers aged five to 18 enjoying a book of their very own.
“As a New Zealand author writing for children and a bookseller who proudly supports New Zealand authors and illustrators through my online bookstore, it’s also wonderful to see Kiwi Christmas Books championing locally-created books.”
Books donated through the Kiwi Kids’ Bookstore will be distributed to local families through Community Wellbeing North Canterbury’s Christmas Gift Drive, including the Karanga Mai Early Learning Centre Christmas celebration.
“For many of the whānau we walk alongside, Christmas can be a time of financial and emotional stress,” says Deirdre Ryan, General Manager of Community Wellbeing North Canterbury Trust.
“Receiving a beautiful book can bring a sense of joy, connection and hope. It’s a gift that says, ‘you matter, and your story matters too’.
“We’re especially grateful to partner with Kate and the Kiwi Kids’ Bookstore to ensure our tamariki and rangatahi, including the young parents and their children at Karanga Mai, feel the aroha of their community this Christmas.”
Founded by Aotearoa author Sonya Wilson in 2019, Kiwi Christmas Books has donated more than 54,000 new books to children and teens around New Zealand, through women’s refuges, hospitals, transitional housing, foster care, and community organisations.
“Reading stories set in our own streets, forests and farms shows Kiwi kids that their lives, their voices and their communities matter,” says Wilson. “Receiving a brand-new book of their own at Christmas builds pride, belonging and identity and helps children fall in love with reading.”
The campaign also supports local authors, illustrators, publishers and independent booksellers, all of whom are facing increasing challenges in the current economic climate.
“By buying a book from your local bookshop for Kiwi Christmas Books, you’re helping a child in need and also supporting the creative heart of Aotearoa,” says Wilson. “It’s a win-win.”
This Christmas, the charity is particularly keen to receive donations of children’s books featuring reo Māori, which are consistently popular with the organisations they work with.
“We have dozens of beautiful reo Māori books by Aotearoa creators at the Kiwi Kids’ Bookstore,” says Gordon-Smith. “Some are fully in te reo, some are bilingual, and others weave reo Māori naturally into the story, just like many of us do in everyday life. These books support literacy and celebrate identity, giving tamariki the joy of seeing their language and culture reflected in the stories they read.”
For some children, a Kiwi Christmas Books gift may be the only present they receive, and for many, it will be their first-ever book.
Last year alone, the campaign collected 11,411 brand-new books in 38 towns and cities, reaching children in hospitals, refuges, refugee centres, and families experiencing hardship.
“Books are small gifts that carry big meaning,” says Wilson. “They create joy at Christmas, strengthen literacy, and remind children they are seen and valued. And when those books are written and published here in Aotearoa, they carry an even greater magic, they tell our stories.
“Times are tough for so many Kiwi families. The right book at the right time can be life-changing. Books create moments of connection, imagination and joy, the very things Christmas should be about.”
How to help
- The Kiwi Christmas Books campaign runs from 1 November – 10 December 2025.
- Picture book donations to support the Karanga Mai Christmas party needed by 1 December.
- Community Wellbeing Christmas Gift drive will accept gifts in partner stores from late November.
- The Kiwi Kids’ Bookstore offers book donors a 20% discount on all books by using the code XMASBOOKSDONATION in their online bookstore, www.kiwikidsbooks.nz
