Let Christmas begin!

 

Let Christmas begin! All across the country right now, our volunteers are sharing their happy, sparkling celebrations with refugees, and having lots and lots of fun together. This is a great and uplifting way to make people feel welcome to the UK, and to introduce them to some of our customs and culture – while having a brilliant time into the bargain.

 

Our volunteers have worked as hard as Santa’s elves to make this magic happen, and you can see, it means everything to the refugees.

 

In South West London, volunteers, and supporters in the community gave  food, gifts and their time to put on a party (that’s two of the team with Santa in the first picture). Jamie Jibberish, AKA Magic for Smiles also came along to make special memories for families and individuals who have been through so much in the past year. It was a totally spectacular show!

 

In Thurrock, our volunteers worked closely with the community church who helped make it possible to put on a party and reach so many more families. Families all brought a plate of food to share, made a rag wreath, played games and danced. All children will also be given a Christmas present by the church community.

 

Manchester volunteers have been working like crazy to gather hundreds of presents to be given out to refugees who might otherwise not receive anything. They even had enough to send Laurence the van driver off making deliveries way beyond Manchester. Fantastic effort!

 

In Derby, volunteers hosted a brilliant Christmas dinner at the Susanna Wesley House, with games, turkey, crackers, Christmas hats, presents and lots of dancing! Everyone had great fun and it was a lovely end to what has been quite a hard year.

 

Meanwhile up the road in West Yorkshire volunteers had a party at Chapel FM where the lads shared some of their own culture by making awesome “proper” coffee. They also gave out presents by kind courtesy of @Lush, and some knitted hats. One guy took two – one for a friend, he said, but they made everyone laugh by putting them both on because he was freezing!

 

Thank you to all the volunteers and supporters making these amazing things happen. More tomorrow!

 

Join in making the magic happen – buy a Christmas gift for a refugee at shop.Care4Calais.org