24/10/2020
I just saw this on another page I follow and thought this is a really lovely idea:
* ANONYMOUS POST *
"Last Christmas I contacted my sons primary school to find out if there was a family who were going to have a rough time of it at Christmas. I wanted to know if they would appreciate the offer of someone buying their Christmas dinner for them. Our Headmistress had a family in mind and agreed to act as a go between to keep both them anonymous and to keep me anonymous as this was not about being seen to be doing a good thing but to be doing a good thing...
She let me know there were 2 kids in the family of primary age, and we were off.... I built 2 hampers for them, 1 a christmas dinner with all the trimmings (including foil trays to cook in and oil etc) and the 2nd a big hamper of goodies, biscuits, popcorn and other treats to see them through the holidays (with a few staples thrown in, e.g. UHT milk to go with the tea and coffee). A friend donated some cinema vouchers for a trip out, and a local KFC donated a chicken cheque for a meal on them... We bought a couple of little treats for the kids and a small mug for the grown-ups...
All in all it was less than a big night out on the town would cost... Lidl helped keep the costs down... I swear it was one of my favourite thing I remember from last year, my son and I had the most fun picking what we thought they would enjoy opening, it was brilliant wrapping the presents (and including some wrapping paper and tape so the parents could rewrap the gifts if they needed to!... The joy I felt when I delivered it to the headmistress, and I loved thinking about the excitement I'd be feeling if I'd been the Mum and Dad getting to open all the goodies and spoiling their kids(not just staples)...
I just wanted to put the idea out there, in case anyone wanted to try something similar and reach out to their headteacher ... There was something very special about knowing you were changing one families christmas day for the better (and were hopefully making them feel spoiled)
Completely get some people would rather give support to food banks (and we do on a weekly basis) but it was such an amazing feeling impacting 1 family in this way. We've chatted to our headmistress to find out if there is another family we can help again this year and I really can't wait!
