STAFF and visitors at Deep Sea World are spreading some festive cheer with the help of a Christmas Giving Tree.

Staff at the North Queensferry attraction have put up a Christmas tree in the aquarium’s entrance hall and are inviting colleagues and visitors to place donated presents beneath its branches.

All the gifts will then be collected together and transported to a local hospital’s children’s ward.

Deep Sea World’s Catherine Gemmell said, “We wanted to do something special for local children over the festive period so we decided to contact the Children’s Ward at Victoria Hospital and provide presents for all the children on the ward over Christmas.

“The tree was covered with gift tags with the details of all of the children on the ward and we’ve been overwhelmed with the generosity so far. However there are still some tags left and we are hoping to provide every single child with their very own gift.

“All people have to do is hand in their donations to reception where we will do all the Christmas wrapping and, once we have all the gifts, our very own Charlie the Clownfish mascot will be taking on the role of Santa Claus and going along to the hospital before Christmas to hand out the presents!” As well as the Giving Tree, visitors to the aquarium at the weekend will be able to enjoy the underwater antics of Deep Sea World’s very own scuba-diving Santa Claus who will be taking the plunge in the aquarium’s giant underwater display which is home to three-metre-long sand tiger sharks and stingrays.