Hartlepool Baby Bank 'trying its best' to help struggling families on World Book Day
A survey's revealed parents are spending nearly £20 on average on costumes
Last updated 1st May 2025
We are hearing how charities in Teesside are trying their best to help struggling families this World Book Day.
It comes as a survey has revealed parents are spending nearly £20 on average per child on costumes.
Emilie De Brujin, Chair of Hartlepool Baby Bank, said: "The idea that parents are spending nearly £20 on average on costumes to celebrate World Book Day is horrible for me. It's horrific. These are parents who can't always narrowly provide baby milk or nappies without stress and now we're asking to provide a book and a costume. I wish all primary schools were sensible; bring in a book that you love and talk about it, do a non-uniform day, talk about literacy and talk about reading.
"We've already had parents coming in and asking us for costumes and we're trying our best to provide either costumes or yesterday I suggested Mr. Bump; go in blue, get a pack of bandages from the pound shop, wrap your child up in blue and some bandages and there you go, Mr. Bump for the cost of about £2.
"Some schools insist that you wear a costume that matches a book that you have and that makes it so much harder. So although it's really, really sad for baby banks all across the UK as we're trying to support these families with World Book Day, we're just very glad that we can help these families.
"No, we don't always have enough to cope with demand. We ask on our social media pages and luckily the community does come forward for us but it does peak and flow. It often depends on the size, that kind of 2-4 age range is much more difficult for us to stock than 0-3 months or 3-6 months.
"World Book Day brings us different challenges. we provide clothing all-year round and we're busy for clothing all-year round. The type of clothing that we provide can be anything from winter and summer hats to coats, pyjamas, underwear, to normal everyday clothing and that demand is just there month after month."
The cost of World Book Day
Parents are spending nearly £20 per child on average on costumes to celebrate World Book Day this year, a survey indicates.
The event, held today (Thursday 6th March), helps to embed reading as a lifelong habit, with children being inspired to celebrate their favourite books, authors and illustrators.
According to research commissioned by cashback service Rakuten, parents estimate they will spend £19 per child this World Book Day on average - £2 more than the average of £17 per child that they typically spent last year.
The event also appears to bring out a competitive element in some parents, with just over a fifth (22%) feeling the need to impress, according to the Opinium survey of 2,000 people across the UK in February.
Some 11% of parents surveyed said they spend upwards of £50 per child on costumes.
Parents may potentially be able to keep their costs down by checking supermarket aisles for costumes, looking out for discounts, vouchers and cashback and "re-purposing" costumes for events and different times of the year when children need to dress up, such as parties, Christmas events and Halloween.
Passing costumes down from older siblings, swapping costumes that children have grown out of with other families, making home-made costumes, and asking the school whether they know of any local exchange schemes could be other ways for parents to save money.
Some families may also find it useful to set a spending limit, to avoid going over budget.