Christmas Jumper Day 2026

What Christmas Jumper Day is and who runs it

Christmas Jumper Day 2026 is on Thursday 10 December 2026.

Christmas Jumper Day is the annual fundraising day run by Save the Children UK. On the day, people across the country wear a Christmas jumper to school, work or wherever they happen to be, and make a small donation to the charity in return. The suggested amount is £2 for adults and £1 for children. Save the Children sets the date each year and has confirmed Thursday 10 December 2026, so it falls on a weekday in the second week of December, before most schools break up for the holidays.

The idea is deliberately simple. You put on the silliest, sparkliest or most homemade jumper you own, pay your pound or two, and the money goes towards Save the Children’s work keeping children safe, healthy and in education in the UK and around the world.

Christmas Jumper Day is owned and organised by Save the Children UK, the British arm of the international children’s charity. The campaign is built around one ask: wear a jumper, donate, and encourage others to do the same.

Schools, nurseries, youth groups, offices, shops and sports clubs all take part, and so do plenty of households who simply wear their jumpers for the day and give online. Save the Children’s own figures put participation to date at more than 26 million children and teachers and more than 18 million people at work and at home since the day began.

When Christmas Jumper Day is and how the date is chosen

Christmas Jumper Day 2026 is on Thursday 10 December 2026. The date is chosen by Save the Children rather than following a fixed calendar rule, so it moves slightly from year to year. The charity aims for a weekday in early-to-mid December, close enough to Christmas for jumpers to feel festive but early enough that schools are still in session. If the official date clashes with a nativity play, an end-of-term event or a busy day at work, Save the Children is relaxed about people holding their Christmas Jumper Day on another date nearby. The donation counts just the same.

A short history

Save the Children held the first Christmas Jumper Day on 14 December 2012. At the time, the festive jumper was enjoying a comeback from its reputation as a slightly embarrassing gift, and the charity spotted a chance to turn a bit of fun into a mass-participation fundraiser.

The day has run every December since. Save the Children reports that it has raised more than £42 million in total, and that the 2025 event alone brought in £2.6 million. Over the years the campaign has been fronted by a long list of television presenters, comedians and sports personalities, and Christmas jumpers themselves have become a mainstream part of the British December.

How the fundraising works

The mechanics are straightforward, which is a large part of why the day works so well.

• Sign up. Schools, workplaces and families can register free on the Christmas Jumper Day sign-up page. Save the Children then sends a welcome email with downloadable resources: posters, games, activities, decoration ideas, and for schools, assembly presentations and lesson plans for Key Stages 1 to 4.
• Collect donations. The suggested donation is £2 per adult and £1 per child. Most schools collect in cash or through their usual online payment system; many workplaces set up an online giving page so colleagues can donate from their desks. The sign-up process runs through JustGiving, which makes it easy to create a page that everyone can share.
• Add Gift Aid where you can. If a donor is a UK taxpayer and completes a Gift Aid declaration, the charity can claim an extra 25p for every £1 given, at no cost to the donor. The rules are set out on GOV.UK. Gift Aid only applies to individual donations, not to cash collected in a bucket without a declaration, so an online page usually raises more than a collection tin for the same number of people.

The money supports Save the Children’s programmes in the UK and overseas, from early-years education and food support to emergency response. The charity’s 2025 campaign page gave examples of what the funds buy, such as drought-resistant seed packets for families facing hunger.

Christmas Jumper Day at school

Schools are the heart of Christmas Jumper Day. For most primary pupils it is a non-uniform day with a twist, and the £1 donation is usually collected by the class teacher or through the school’s payment app. Secondary schools often run it alongside a Christmas lunch or the last assembly of term.

Ideas that work well in schools include:

• Using the Save the Children assembly presentation to explain where the money goes, so pupils understand that the day is about more than fancy dress.
• Running a “design your own jumper” competition in the weeks before, so children who do not own a Christmas jumper can decorate a plain one with felt, tinsel or paper and feel fully part of the day.
• Holding a jumper swap or borrowing rail so nobody has to buy new. Many schools now ask families not to purchase a jumper specially, both for cost and for environmental reasons.
• Combining the day with a Christmas fair, a carol concert or a festive bake sale to raise a little more.

Christmas Jumper Day at work

For employers, Christmas Jumper Day is one of the easiest team events of the year. It costs nothing to run, needs no booking and gives colleagues who work from home a reason to turn their cameras on. Typical approaches include:

• Setting up a team giving page and sharing it in the week before, so remote and hybrid staff can donate as easily as those in the office.
• Asking the company to match what staff raise. Matched giving is a quick way to double the total and is often available through corporate social responsibility budgets.
• Running the quiz from the Save the Children workplace pack over lunch, or holding a “best jumper” and “worst jumper” vote.
• Photographing the team and sharing it on the company’s channels with a link to the giving page.

Taking part at home

You do not need an organisation behind you. Plenty of people wear a jumper to the shops or on the school run and give online. If you are buying a jumper, consider a second-hand one from a charity shop, or decorate a jumper you already own. The charity’s message is firmly that nobody needs to spend money on clothing to take part.

Christmas Jumper Day sits inside a busy December calendar. Many households pair it with the start of Advent, and workplaces often run it in the same week as a Christmas lunch or a secret Santa.

Related awareness days

If you are planning a season of fundraising, these days sit naturally alongside Christmas Jumper Day:

• Giving Tuesday, the global day of charitable giving that falls at the start of December.
• BBC Children in Need in November, another mass-participation day for schools and workplaces.
• Red Nose Day in the spring, which uses a very similar “dress up and donate” model.
• Christmas Day and Boxing Day, the bank holidays that close out the year.