Firefighters across Rutland and Melton have been spreading festive cheer with their Shoebox appeal.

The appeal from Leicestershire Fire and Rescue began last month and as Nub News reported previously, asked people to fill an empty shoebox with presents and drop the boxes off at fire stations.

In recent weeks, the stations at Uppingham, Oakham and Melton, collected many hundreds of gifts for distribution.

The appeal's Matt Basey told Nub News: "We thought that with it being such a tough year this year we wanted to try and put a smile on as many faces as possible.

"As well as all the hundreds of presents that we have now delivered, we also sourced a brand new fridge for someone that had a small kitchen fire, and also got some food to put in it. "

The appeal closed yesterday.

The station crew posted on Facebook: "We cannot thank everyone enough for their generosity during these strange times, you have certainly bought hundreds of smiles to people's faces in the Rutland & Melton area!

"This appeal would not have been possible if it was not for our fantastic community! â¤

We have now ran out of gifts to give unfortunately!

"Let's keep the kindness and caring going, it doesn't take much to make someone else smile! We can all do our bit during these challenging times. It could be as simple as contacting someone you know is alone or putting someone's bins out, even a smile is contagious so let's smile more

"We wish you all a very safe and merry Christmas!"