Holiday cheer in three easy steps: Donate a toy, take your pet to visit Santa Paws, help fill Mercer Clinic Holiday Pet Baskets.

A Toys for Tots collection is underway on the Davis campus, and next week the UC Davis Health System in Sacramento launches a drive for toys to give to patients and to put in hospital playrooms and waiting areas.

TOYS FOR TOTS: Run by the Marine Corps League of Yolo County, with help from Mail Services, which is taking care of the collection barrels around the Davis campus and collecting toys via campus mail.

Toys, which must be new and unwrapped, are being accepted until Monday (Dec. 14), Here are the collection barrel locations:

• Fire Department, Kleiber Hall Drive
• Police Department, Kleiber Hall Drive
• Office of the Vice Chancellor-Chief Financial Officer: Finance, Operations and Administration, 376 Mrak Hall
• Plant and Environmental Sciences Building
• Human Resources, Orchard Road
• Facilities Management business office, Crocker Lane
• Communication Resources trailer
• Agriculture and Natural Resources, 2801 Second St.
• Accounting and Financial Services, 1441 Research Park Drive
• Safety Services, Hoagland Hall
• Office of Development, Conference Center, second floor
• Shared Services Center, 260 Cousteau Place
• Office of Research, 1850 Research Park Drive, Suite 300
• Office of the Registrar, 3100 Dutton Hall
• University Extension, 1333 Research Park Drive

UC DAVIS HEALTH SYSTEM: This toy drive should really be called a toy "drive-up," because volunteers and staff will be standing by to take your toy donations when you drive up. The health system is collecting the toys for oncology patients and for other children in the hospital, outpatient clinics and the MIND Institute, and to put in hospital playrooms and waiting areas. Due to infection control policies, all toys must be brand-new and unwrapped.

The toy drive will be spread over five days at two locations on the health system campus in Sacramento:

• Thursday-Friday, Dec. 17-18 — 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Comprehensive Cancer Center's North Building, 2279 45th St.
• Monday-Wednesday, Dec. 21-23 — 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m., MIND Institute, 2825 50th St.

Looking for suggestions on what to donate? Check out this year’s wish list, online.

SANTA PAWS AND HOLIDAY PET BASKETS: Both of these projects are connected to the Mercer Clinic for the pets of homeless people. The monthly clinic in Sacramento is run in large part by UC Davis veterinary students and staff, on their own time, although it is not officially affiliated with the university.

A similar volunteer effort — by staff and friends of the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital — is behind the Holiday Pet Baskets project, now in its 20th year. This year’s distribution is set for Saturday (Dec. 12); money is still being accepted for the purchase of toys, treats, food and brushes, and pet sweaters and coats. See news release for details on how to donate.

In a separate fundraiser for the clinic, veterinary students have arranged for Santa Paws to pose for pictures with pets. The picture-taking session, open to the public, is scheduled for this Sunday (Dec. 13) at the Arden Animal Hospital, Follow Dateline UC Davis on Twitter.