Christmas!

maggiesoup

Sorry to use the C word in August....! We've been talking about the inevitability of the shops starting to fill their shelves with Christmas tat from next month and its made up think about doing something different this year.

Rather than sitting around eating/drinking too much and watching the same old rubbish on tv we would like to think about giving something back on Christmas day in the spirit of what its really supposed to be about.

Have no idea what can be done? Helping at hospital? Helping the homeless? Volunteering to be a driver at a charity?

Can anyone point me in the direction of where we may get information?

PixiePie

You can contact your local council to find out about care homes for elderly and see if they want volunteers, or shelter (the charity) to see if there is a homeless shelter in your area - my friend does this in London every year and volunteers to be with the animals - the people go get haircuts and medical checks and food etc etc and the dogs get groomed, bathed, trimed, vetted and played with and she helps out with that. I know others serve/prepare food and other things as well. Don't know if there are any outside of London though...

There was a volenteer site that pooled things like this, I'm really sorry I can't remember what it was, but matched up people's time and charities. Or you could just contact hospitals etc in your area. Or look in the phone book/online yellow pages etc if there are any hospices in your area? They might like the help (don't know if people use them at Xmas, but guess they must as there are some people without anyone to look after them)

Contacting charities directly that you are particularly interested in should be able to help, ie Help the Aged, Cancer Research, Shelter etc etc.

Savvy_Sue

There is 'Caring at Christmas' in Bristol, which runs similar services to the ones PixiePie mentions. and you are right to start thinking about it in August, so well done for that, because there are training sessions, and the need to run a CRB check, and so on.

You may have a local volunteer bureau and they'd probably know about anything like this. Ask at your local library.