Four more days left until the best time of the year: Christmas. The presents are piling up under our trees; money is growing in shops due to last minute Christmas shopping. Every day we open a new door of our Advent Calendars and savour the delicious taste of chocolate whilst parents panic as gifts have not arrived yet.
Nowadays Christmas is about presents, family, friends and food, and most importantly it is the time of giving. Whilst we all eagerly countdown the sleeps we have until Christmas, other people are scavenging for food, or huddled up on the side of pavements trying to keep warm. Others’ are starving as they watch hungrily and sadly at the food lining shops and lights adorning warm, comfortable houses.
A friend said ‘Even though I love presents, what I adore most is giving presents to friends and family and watching their reactions.’ In the end, it’s the giving that matters, or the people you are with at Christmas. Yet some people lost friends, family at the Grenfell tragedy. Yet some people do not even get any presents, or the traditional British roast dinner, turkeys and Yorkshire puddings: they are fighting to survive the increasing cold nights. But this could change. You can help.
In Bluewater there is a ‘Giving Tree’ and on it are stars with children’s names and age. Take a tag, then buy a present- anything- and put the present In the Drop Box beside the tree. You could be the reason someone smiles at Christmas. You have the power to change someone’s life: will you take it?
Although getting presents, eating, decorating are all important at Christmas, remember to help others’ too and make everyone’s Christmas special.
‘Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn’t come from a store’- Dr Seuss
Maybe Christmas comes from the heart; from the people; from us.
By: Yii-Ling Deng Newstead Wood School
