It’s never nice to receive a parking ticket, especially around the holidays, but a police initiative out of Pickering helps to take the sting away.

The “Toys 4 Tickets and Food 4 Fines” program is back for another year, where in lieu of the set fine, most parking tickets issued during the Dec. 1-14 period can be paid with a donation of food and toys, equal or greater than the value of the fine.

All the donations go to the Durham Regional Police Service Food and Toy Drive.

Donations will be accepted on Dec. 13-14 at the Pickering Civic Complex.