There was tremendous excitement at Lockerley church on Sunday.

People were streaming in clutching brightly coloured shoeboxes. The shoeboxes were filled by people all around the Romsey Deanery. Inside each box were lovingly chosen presents for a child they would never meet.

Local Operation Christmas Child organiser, Julia Barnett, was thrilled. 'We wondered if this year, with all the cutbacks, people would not feel they could do so much, but the response has been brilliant.'

The service at Lockerley was conducted by Rev James Pitkin and included a  video clip of a young lad whooping for joy at the sight of his shoebox ... and he hadn't even opened it!

Mary Savage, another organiser, told of her visit to Romania at the beginning of the year.

"To see the faces of these children when they received their shoebox, is a sight I will never forget, 'she said. "It makes all the hard work worthwhile."

There was hard work to be done after the service too.

Mr Pitkin organised two human chains to take the huge pile of shoeboxes from the altar to be loaded into a vehicle outside the church,.

 He said tha he counted 1,200 boxes into the truck.

"This year some are going to eastern Europe and Azerbaijan and another load will go by air to children in Zambia. They're off to a warehouse for packing and then they'll be on their way. Romsey people have been very generous to children, even in hard times," said Mr Pitkin.