Operation Christmas Child has been deemed a success, with Queenstown people donating 155 shoeboxes full of gifts for poor children in Cambodia, Papua New Guinea and Fiji.
The project is run by international Christian non-profit organisation Samaritan's Purse and has reached more than 77 million children in 130 countries since 1990.
Queenstown co-ordinator Sharon Hargest said this year's contribution from the resort was down on the 180 boxes donated in the previous year, but was still a "really great" response.
"A lot of the staff here at Fresh Choice got into it and [so did] all sorts of people like the Remarkables School and individual people," Miss Hargest said.
"It didn't work out with the school holidays being pushed back [due to the Rugby World Cup] as schools came back on the day the shoeboxes were due, but the individual people made up for it so it was really good."
The 155 boxes donated in Queenstown were among the 4000 given by people in the South Island and a national total of 22,200 boxes.
Once they had been collected by late October, they were trucked to Auckland and shipped overseas in crates.
Many have already been delivered to children in schools and Sunday schools, with the remainder set to put smiles on faces in the next few weeks.
The boxes were tailored for boys or girls in 2-4, 5-9, and 10-14 age groups and included something to wear, something for hygiene, something to play with, school supplies and "something special", such as a photo of the giver's family.
