THE people of Lochgelly are about to show the "true spirit of Christmas" through the Giving Tree Appeal.

Every year the residents display their generosity of spirit by buying presents for local children, which are then distributed by the Dunfermline and District Lions Club.

They can leave the gifts underneath the tree at the Jennie Lee Library, in the Lochgelly Centre, to ensure that no-one misses out on December 25.

Ann Belton, the centre supervisor, said: "It's the true spirit of Christmas to give without expecting anything in return.

"When you give a gift and wake up on Christmas morning, knowing a child somewhere is opening your gift, that's just a lovely thing to do."

Members of the public are asked take a tag from the tree for a boy or girl of a certain age, from birth to teenagers, and hand in their gifts to the library staff.

Ann said: "Every child should wake up to something on Christmas morning so we've been doing this for a good few years now.

"We always get a great response in Lochgelly as the people are very generous.

"We ask them to choose a tag, purchase a gift for a child and then write on the tag the age and sex of the child. The gift doesn't need to be wrapped.

"If they can hand it in to us by December 13, we'll store them and then volunteers from the Dunfermline and District Lions Club collect them and, thanks to a list from the social work department, they distribute them prior to Christmas.

"It's local children that benefit."