Helpers at Craggy Range Winery pack about 5,000 Santa sacks

Santa's helpers have packed over 5000 sacks for Hawke's Bay children. Photo / Warren Buckland

Santa's helpers have packed about 5,000 sacks for Hawke's Bay children.

More than 200 people showed up at Craggy Range Winery's packing party for the sacks on Friday.

Police and firefighters made up most of the helpers as well as a large number of Children's Christmas Foundation partners.

Craggy Range brand manager Venita Simcox said the wine cellar on Waimarama Rd was full of music and organised chaos.

"No one can escape the Christmas tunes."

Thousands of sports balls needed to be pumped by helpers before being packing into Santa sacks at Craggy Range Winery. Photo / Warren Buckland

Before any packing can be done, thousands of balls need to be pumped up, which tends to get the heart rate up and brings out your competitive side, Simcox said.

"Balls are flying everywhere and everybody is pitching in."

Packing stations were set up for each age group throughout the barrel room, cellar and outdoors, with an assembly line of helpers packing gifts into the Santa sacks.

These were then stacked around the beautiful big Christmas tree that was donated by Hawke's Bay Christmas Trees.

Once all the sacks were packed, Craggy's helpers were rewarded for their hard work with a glass of wine and restaurant snacks.

Packing stations are set up for each age group throughout the barrel room, cellar and outdoors, with an assembly line of helpers packing gifts into the Santa Sacks. Photo / Warren Buckland

The pile of Santa sacks will be delivered to Napier, Hastings, Wairoa and Central Hawke's Bay.

From there, the gifts will go to the "incredible Christmas Cheer co-ordinators", who have liaised with more than 40 agencies, schools and groups who will distribute the gifts over the coming week.

With Covid restrictions constantly changing, Craggy Range was unsure if it would be able to go ahead with the packing event, and Simcox said they were thankful to have been able to have everyone onsite to help with the mammoth task.