On 17 November the Committee approved the letting of the remaining contracts for the initial order of the tinder lighters, cigarettes, tobacco and Christmas cards for the first 500,000 gifts. Asprey & Co Ltd were to supply half a million tinder lighters at 5½d each. De La Rue & Co 350,000 Christmas cards at 25/- per thousand., Harrods Ltd (together with seven other firms) 483,875 pipes at a total cost of £12,340 11s 5d, while four tobacco firms and cigarette manufacturers between them supplied 44,840 lbs of tobacco and 13,050,000 cigarettes at a total cost of £10,722 17s 5d. In actuality, although some tinder lighters were obtained, Asprey were unable to provide the agreed requisite number. This placed the Committee in a quandary; even if troops in the trenches on Christmas Day had first call on a very limited supply, there were still not enough to go round. The Committee resolved the problem by hurriedly buying in an assortment of substitute gifts: bullet pencil cases, tobacco pouches, shaving brushes, combs, pencil cases with packets of postcards, knives, scissors, cigarette cases and purses. Those sailors who should also have received the lighter as part of their gift, were given instead, a handsome bullet pencil in a silver cartridge case which bore Princess Mary's monogram.
By the end of November it became clear that a surplus of £37,000 had accrued to the Fund's account. This sum allowed for an extension of the scheme so that every man 'wearing the King's uniform on Christmas Day 1914' would eventually receive a gift from the Princess's Fund. This widening of eligibility to an estimated figure of 2,620,019 meant that it would be impossible for the Committee to arrange for the manufacture, supply and entire distribution on 25th December. It was therefore decided to prioritise by dividing potential recipients into three categories or classes.
The three Classes:
Class A:
comprised the Navy, including minesweepers and dockyard officials, and troops at the Front in France. Also, the wounded in hospitals and men on furlough, prisoners and men interned (for whom the gift was reserved), members of the French Mission with the Expeditionary Force, nurses at the Front in France and the widows or parents of those who had been killed. Members of this class were to receive the gift on or near Christmas Day.
Class B:
all British, Colonial and Indian troops serving outside the British Isles (but exclusive of those provided for in Class A).
Class C:
all troops in the British Isles
Distribution:
Berkeley reported at the meeting of 8 December that 220,000 gifts for the Army and 150,000 for the Navy would be ready for delivery on Saturday 12 December. The packing, by Army personnel, was carried out at the Army Depot at Deptford - where the bulk of the goods had been delivered.