How did it all start?

The Jingle Jam began in 2011 when Lewis and Simon of The Yogscast asked fans to donate to Oxfam.

In 2011, Simon & Lewis asked their viewers to donate to their Oxfam Just Giving page instead of giving them Christmas presents. As the largest YouTube gaming channel in the world at the time, the response was tremendous—raising over $100,000, and since then, it’s only grown bigger and bigger.

In the years following, Jingle Jam has expanded to include unique live-streaming content hosted by a variety of creators from the Yogscast and beyond, as well as a specially-curated selection of games known as the Jingle Jam Games Collection, which gets sent to anyone who donates over the minimum amount. The games—collectively worth many hundreds of pounds—are provided for free by incredibly generous video game publishers and developers. 

Now a globally recognized event, Jingle Jam has raised more than £23 million for dozens of charitable causes including those focused on sustainability, conservation, war relief, accessibility in gaming and sport, cancer research, LGBTQ+ issues, combating racism, and more.

Jingle Jam 2021 also launched community-based fundraisers with 215 creators, charities and games companies joining The Yogscast and running their own Jingle Jam streams, raising over £480,000. This year continues this initiative, as anyone will be able to register from 1 December through the end of Jingle Jam on Tiltify and take part.

Today, Jingle Jam is a community of volunteers, content creators, games companies, and charities. But most importantly, Jingle Jam is the people: those who support the event by donating, sharing with friends, and tuning in, whether it be for the first time, or year after year.