Christmas Card Competition

Everyone aged 16 and under is welcome to take part in the Kid’s Alive! Christmas Card Competition. Design your card on an A4 paper (no digital entries, please) and mail it to The Salvation Army for your chance to be one of our winners. 

This year’s theme is ‘Love Came Down’. What does love at Christmas look like to you? Show us in your design! Whether it’s acts of kindness, family time, sharing, a Nativity scene, or something else – we want to see your creativity!

The winner categories of the Christmas Card Competition include:

• One overall winner (£100 Entertainer voucher)
• Two runners-up (£50 Entertainer voucher)
• Four age category winners: Under 7s, 7–9 years-old, 10–12 years-old, 13–16 years-old (£20 Entertainer voucher)

Along with sending in your design, you can make a donation to help those who may be homeless, hungry or lonely this Christmas. Make a donation on our website here

Examples of what your gift could do:

£4.70 could provide an activity pack to keep young children busy, interested and full of life over the school holidays.

£10 could contribute towards a food parcel to feed a desperate, hungry person for a day.

£45 could provide a Christmas dinner and the promise of companionship for five people facing loneliness due to varying circumstances.

£65 could help us deliver festive Christmas 'meals on wheels' to 7 older people who would otherwise be completely alone without anyone to even wish them 'Happy Christmas'.

This Christmas, you can Be A Star and share the love! Along with entering your card design into the competition (see Option 1 for details on submitting your design), you can also fundraise to help those who may be homeless, hungry, or lonely this Christmas.

*Important: Please ask a parent or guardian to help you with your fundraising, as required by the Fundraising Regulator guidelines. The parent must use their own name and email address to set the fundraising page up.

How to take part:

1. Create your card design – then take a photo or scan of it.
2. Set up a JustGiving fundraising page through our Be A Star campaign:
   • Use your card design as the cover photo of your fundraising page

   • In the page description, copy/paste and edit this text:

     “[Child’s First Name] has entered The Salvation Army’s Kids Alive! Christmas Card Competition, and while we wait to see if their design is chosen as a winner, [First Name] wants to give something back! 

     This Christmas, many people will be homeless, hungry, lonely, or without gifts. I’m fundraising to help The Salvation Army make Christmas brighter for those who need it most. Please donate if you can – every gift will make a difference. And if I’m one of the top three fundraisers, I’ll even receive a special gift from The Salvation Army! Please donate by Friday, 28 November to help those who need it most this Christmas.”

3. Share your page – tell your friends, family, sports team, community group, and church about your fundraising and why you want to give back this Christmas.

✨ The top three fundraisers linked to the Christmas Card Competition will each receive a special gift from The Salvation Army!

The competition has been extended. All card competition entries must now be received by Friday, 28 November 2025. If you’re also fundraising and want the opportunity to be one of our top three fundraisers (and receive a special gift), please make sure your fundraising is completed by the same date.

Please post your cards to the following address in an A4 envelope: Events and Community, 1 Champion Park, London, SE5 8FJ.

Here is the freepost address for you to post your design free of charge: Freepost RUGC-XZAY-GRKG Supporter Services Unit, 3rd Floor, The Salvation Army, 1 Champion Park LONDON SE5 8FJ.

There is no fee to enter the card competition. 

However, if you would like to give back, you can make a voluntary donation on our website here or choose to fundraise in addition to entering the card competition by following the steps above.

Please create your card on an A4 sheet of paper and send it to us in an A4 envelope so it doesn’t need to be folded. Feel free to get as creative as you like, but we encourage you to focus on this year’s theme ‘Love Came Down’ and show us what love at Christmas means to you. This could be acts of kindness, time with family, Nativity scenes, or anything else that inspires you – we can’t wait to see your creativity!

All winners will receive a voucher to The Entertainer, be featured in the December issue of Kids Alive! magazine, and have their card turned into an e-card available to purchase and send on the Don’t Send Me A Card platform.

The overall winner will receive a £100 voucher to The Entertainer plus have their design featured on the cover of Kids Alive! magazine. Two runner up winners will each receive a £50 Entertainer voucher and the four winners of the age categories will each receive a £20 Entertainer voucher.

Unfortunately, we cannot accept any digital entries. All entries must be hand made and physically mailed to our headquarters.

There are four different age categories to enter:

• Under 7's
• 7 - 9-year-olds
• 10 - 12-year-olds
• 13 - 16-year-olds

Absolutely, we'd love for schools to get involved! Your school/class can send in their festive cards altogether. Please ensure that every individual design includes the pupils name, age, and either a parent/guardian/school contact name and email address.

By submitting a card design, please understand that if selected as a winner The Salvation Army will have ownership of the design and may use it in various promotional materials.

Please also ensure you have read through our fundraising T&C’s carefully, available here.

If we haven't answered your question here, please get in touch with us at challenge@salvationarmy.org.uk with the subject "Christmas Card Competition" and one of our team will be happy to help you!