McNairs in Kirkintilloch brings festive cheer to the local community with Christmas Jumper Day

One of the West of Scotland’s leading independent timber merchants and building supplies specialists, McNairs in Kirkintilloch has been raising money for charity and bringing festive cheer to the local community - even earning a visit from Santa. Their annual Christmas Jumper Day involved fundraising for Save The Children, a raffle, cake and colourful outfits.

Kathleen Armitt, who has been with the company for 25 years, told GlasgowWorld: “It all started because we always want to try and give back to the community. Christmas Jumper Day is always a good fun one as everyone likes getting in the Christmas spirit. The customers like laughing at us and our silly jumpers, the staff like having a wee competition to see who gets the best jumper.

“They also do some home baking, so there's a wee bit of rivalry there as well about who makes the best tablet and who makes the best cheesecake. It is generally builders, joiners, site workers that are coming in and they love coming in and seeing that big Christmas tree and a table full of cakes in the morning and treats so they just fill their pockets and they give us a donation along the way.

“We've just done this for years and years and it gets a bit of a buzz about the place and we have Christmas lights up on the building to celebrate 40 years as a big part of the Kirkintilloch community. We have a massive site at the industrial estate down here, we will put the lights up again next year as it's lovely to hear people from the local community saying their kids love looking out the window and seeing them as they drive by our building.”

The Christmas Jumper Day even earned a visit from Santa: “We have a local gentleman who is a retired Sant - believe it or not, Santas do retire. He is also a customer of ours so he was back in the red outfit and came out of retirement to help us out on the day. He’s just brilliant. The builders who have a busy day ahead, they just loved having a laugh and a joke with us.”

Kirkintilloch was named the best place to live in Scotland by a property study this year, and McNairs is a part of that local community. Kathleen says: “We have 74 staff and the majority of them are from Kirkintilloch. There’s the Canal Festival and local events all through the year, lots of community events that we get involved in. People think of Kirky as a wee town but we have connects all across the Glasgow area. It’s a good place for families and a happy place to live. Brian, our owner, is keen to do more in the next few years and continue to give back to the community.”