The upper Octagon and part of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery were given over to the ''Choice not Chance Big Value Christmas'' throughout the day. There were with bouncy castles and face painting outside and various stalls inside.
While the event had its first outing last year, of special note this year was the inclusion of a toy swap.
Salvation Army Oasis councillor Chris Watkins said while toy swaps were common, they were generally very small affairs.
''We wanted to do something much bigger. And this is the right time of year to do it.
''It's really about the message that you don't need to spend lots of money around Christmas. You can choose to make it special.''
The Salvation Army had been working with schools to educate children on financial realities, including debt and sustainability. The toy swap had proven to be a ''great way to teach that'', he said.
Children had to write out ''tags'' for the toys they were bringing in, explaining why they were special.
They then had their toys ranked into one of three value bands, and received tokens based on those rankings.
They could then use the tokens to take home other toys in the same value band.
As well as teaching children about the value of their toys, it was ''a great sustainable thing as well'' as it ensured toys were not sitting unused.
For Dunedin mum Julie Howard and her two boys Reg (6) and Ernest (3) Billot, Saturday's event was their first toy swap experience.
Initially the boys ''weren't so keen'' on the idea of having to give away their toys, she said.
''But when I said, `look, these are little baby toys, and it would be nice for another little baby to have them', they were OK.''
The boys had ''loved'' the exchange she said, and had been able to understand the value of what they'd given, and therefore what they could get back.
''It's wonderful that the city is putting something like this on.''
