A Spar forecourt owner in Wiltshire, who decided to give local school children Christmas presents, received a warm welcome when he arrived to hand them over.

The children in Musbury near Axminster were so delighted when they heard their local Spar shop was going to give them free chocolate selection boxes for Christmas that they set up their own store in their classroom.

Julian Rinaldi, who owns the Musbury Garage and Spar forecourt store, is a former pupil of the school and decided to donate a number of selection boxes to the pupils, as well as sell a further batch of them in his store to raise money for the NSPCC.

In return, the children built their own mini Spar store in class, and when Julian arrived with his selection boxes, he got behind the makeshift counter and “sold” the boxes to each child.

“It was great fun, and nice to get the children involved in some role play,” said Julian, who also once coached the school football team for 10 years. “They were delighted with their selection boxes.”

The Rinaldi family have run the Musbury Garage site for the 32 years, with Julian taking over from his parents Frank and Barbara in 2008.

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