The 'Black Santa' tradition at Belfast Cathedral was started in 1976 by Dean Sammy Crooks. The local press described Dean Crooks as Belfast's Black Santa. This year we celebrate Black Santa's 50th anniversary!
50th Anniversary Black Santa Appeal 2026 is now open for Grant Applications.
To apply for a Grant from the 2026 Black Santa 50 Appeal please complete the Application Form below, and return it by post or e-mail by Friday 11th December, 2026.
To Donate, please click on link below
https://belfastcathedral.enthuse.com/cf/black-santa-50th-anniversary-appeal-2026
Black Santa prepares for 50th Anniversary Appeal in 2026.
This Christmas will mark 50 years since Dean Sammy Crookes stood on the steps of St Anne’s Cathedral to launch the first Dean’s Christmas Sitout Appeal.
1976 had been a dark year in the Northern Ireland Troubles. It was into those days that Dean Sammy Crooks chose to bring the light of our Christmas faith to that dark December of 1976. And the press soon dubbed the Dean, dressed in his black clerical cloak, as “Black Santa”. The name has stuck, as each of the succeeding Deans of Belfast has taken for themselves the mantle and “persona” of Belfast’s Black Santa.
Across those five decades, the names of Dean Crookes, Shearer, McKelvey, Mann, and now Forde have become synonymous with that ten day vigil on the cathedral steps, through cold and wind, rain, sleet and sometimes snow. And across the years, each Dean has been assisted and encouraged by cathedral Canons, Bishops and others who have stood alongside. Together, over the decades, they collected the donations that were given in the days before Christmas Eve. While in the background cathedral parishioners have counted and sorted all the donations received.
What has always made the Black Santa Sitout so special, is the generosity and the response of people from across the city of Belfast and far beyond. People who first came as children in the 1970s will now bring their own grandchildren to fill the famous Black Santa barrel with coins and notes, and in recent years with the tap of a credit card, or even an online payment from the comfort of their own home. Across those 50 years, millions of pounds have been raised in the days before Christmas, all given away again at the annual Good Samaritans’ Service at the start of each new year.
There have also been notable exceptions to the rule. Following the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004, Dean Houston McKelvey returned to the cathedral steps where an outpouring of generosity ensured that £1.5 million was raised to support the victims and rebuild communities devastated by the tidal surges. A further exception was when the current Dean raised money for Ukrainian refugees across the Wednesdays of Lent in 2021, following the Russian invasion of their country.
How then best to mark and celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Black Santa Sitout in December 2026? Well, it turns out that 2026 is also a special anniversary year for another landmark charity, based in Belfast but serving the whole province. This year is the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice, based at Horizon House, O’Neill Road in Newtownabbey.
So for Black Santa’s 50th anniversary, Dean Stephen Forde, has set himself the challenge of raising one third more this year than last. This extra sum will be given to the Children’s Hospice, in addition to money raised for all those other local charities, some 100 in all, who will apply to the Black Santa Appeal for their essential core funding.
The Children’s Hospice is a very special place where children with life limiting conditions can receive onsite respite care, while their parents or siblings enjoy some well earned rest. The Children’s Hospice also offers home care to families across Northern Ireland. All care at the Children’s Hospice is provided entirely free of charge. However it costs £5.3million to run all the onsite and at home Children’s Hospice Services Unfortunately the government only provides 1/3rd of the total costs. The remaining 2/3rds (£3.2 million) has to be raised from the community.
That is why the Black Santa 50th Anniversary Appeal is partnering with the Children’s Hospice in their 25th year. The extra money raised in 2026 will support the daily work of the Children’s Hospice, at Horizon House and across the province.
For example:
- £70,000 raised would refurbish two of the vital in-patient rooms at Horizon House, where children receive specialist care, including at end of life.
- £100,000 would fund 45 individual nights of expert, round the clock care in Horizon House.
What a challenge!
To raise one third extra for Black Santa 50 in 2026! But through our continued partnership with financial services providers PwC, and with support from businesses, parishes and the ever generous people of our community such a challenge is not beyond reach.
50 Years of the Black Santa Sitout. 25 years of the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice at Horizon House in Newtownabbey. What an opportunity is given for us to share the full meaning of Christmas 2026 to 100 small local charities and also to the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice.
To apply for a Grant from the 2026 Appeal please complete the application form at the link below.