Every Year, before Santa arrives in Biddulph to switch on the Christmas lights, The Rotary club asks local shops and businesses for a donation to sponsor Santa's tour of the town. The money is used to cover the costs of running the sleigh. This ensures that all the money collected by Santa during his tours of the town can go to local charities.

The collections this year have not been finalised yet, and any surplus from the sponsorship fund will be added to it. Several local good causes will be selected to benefit, and some money will be retained for donations to other good causes as needs are identified. In addition 10% of the total will go to the Rotary Foundation which is a large International charity which is very active in providing Disaster Relief.

This year there has been an excellent response from local businesses, with 30 donors giving a total of over £1400. Biddulph Rotary Club thanked them by presenting a Christmas hamper to the winner of a draw. This year the winner was Parker Software Ltd.

Biddulph Rotary would like to thank both the businesses that sponsored the Sleigh and the people of Biddulph for their generosity in supporting the charity fund raising effort. Rotary would also like to thank Wetherspoons and Sainbury’s for the use of their premises during the day, for Santa’s Sleigh.