“A smashed iPhone screen back in 2019 was one thing that changed my life in more ways than I could ever have imagined. At 16, I was still at school and had no means to buy myself a new phone, so I decided to get creative with making money. I set a goal to buy myself the new iPhone XR, so late in 2019, I made a few wooden reindeer Christmas decorations, complete with fairy lights. I charged €12 per decoration, and to my surprise, I sold 120 of them! Not only did I get my new phone, but I made a profit!

A few months later, the covid pandemic hit the world extremely hard. Businesses were really suffering, and everything was a mess. My father, Philip, had prostate cancer during the summer of that year, which he fully recovered from. It was a tough year, but I decided to try to turn 2020 into something positive. I set an even bigger goal – to buy my father a tractor and surprise him on Christmas morning. I knew it would be a lot of work, but I wanted to end his year on a high after all he had been through.

So how did I start? I advertised on Facebook; Paula Nolan took professional photos of me in the workshop with my reindeer, and then my Facebook page completely blew up! I went from having 300 followers to 22 thousand in one day! RTÉ heard about it and came down to film me in the workshop. They made a mini-documentary, exposing me to one million Irish viewers. Local radio stations then reached out, and all the newspapers. Suddenly, I had over 3 thousand orders for my reindeer, and I was overwhelmed and humbled.

I need not worry about how I would fulfil those orders. I had a great team behind me, with my mother Martina organising all the orders and Amanda, Theresa and Yvonne getting the reindeer ready for shipping. My friend Niall, uncles Noel and Pat (and my Da when he was home from work) drove to the post office in Portlaoise with a van full of reindeer for delivery every night.

We shipped almost two thousand reindeer, which was amazing when my goal was to make and sell just half that. For those orders I couldn’t fulfil, I promised them reindeer in December 2021.

Christmas day was one of the most special days of my life, driving the tractor down to the house to surprise my Da. He had no idea, which was a very emotional moment for us. The hardship was worth it to see his face.

I am very grateful to everyone who has supported me in my journey. I couldn’t thank everyone individually. Instead, I bought a teddy bear for every child at Temple Street Hospital in Dublin. There’s nothing worse than being in the hospital at Christmas, especially if you’re a child.

Anything is possible if you put your mind to it and believe in yourself”.

Anthony is a native of Killeigh, Co. Offaly. His work can be found at www.anthonyswoodencrafts.com