Residents and communities get in the festive spirit
Our residents and communities across Wales have joined in festive celebrations.
Residents at St Clements Court, Cardiff, were treated to a Christmas concert when pupils from the nearby St Philip Evans Catholic Primary School visited. Meanwhile at Llain Las in Fishguard residents also enjoyed a Christmas carol concert thanks to the pupils and teachers from the town’s Ysgol Glannau Gwaun.
There were festive celebrations at Hightown Community Resource Centre, including a visit from Santa at a parent and toddler group Christmas party. Ysgol Bodhyfryd school choir performed a set of Christmas songs for everyone who attended the centre’s annual festive afternoon tea carols and bingo event.
The Grinch brought the joys of Christmas, and a little mischief, to our Maes Y Môr extra care scheme in Aberystwyth when he helped residents to decorate the building and communal areas. Fortunately, he had left by the time staff from our West Wales corporate services team volunteered their time to hold a Welsh language craft session with residents, who made their own table decorations.
Supporting our communities
In Wrexham, two organisations received funding to support the local community and help families in need over Christmas.
Wrexham Outreach Tenancy Support (WOTS) filled their 30 Christmas hampers with essentials, festive treats and activities. The hampers were given to individuals with mental health or substance use needs who they support in the community.
One of the most familiar sights of Christmas – the Santa float, led by Wrexham Round Table – made its way to Wrexham and surrounding villages with a contribution from Wales & West Housing towards fuel, sweets for the hundreds of children who came out to meet Santa and refreshments for volunteers.
In Abergele, we donated money to the foodbank to help boost their Christmas hampers with extra items like tins of meat, boxes of chocolates, luxury biscuits, fruit and savoury and sweet treats. for 125 families in the local community.
At Hope St Mellons in Cardiff we were pleased to help volunteers to make sure all local families had new gifts to give this Christmas from their Christmas shop. We donated money to the charity to help them buy stocking fillers and small gifts for parents to choose free of charge.
Organisers of the Kindness at Christmas family event on Newtown green in Powys, turned to us for support. Around 1,000 children and their families attended the community event, which was open to all, so we were happy to donate money from our Making A Difference community fund to buy sweets and chocolates for Santa to hand out to families.
In Merthyr Tydfil some of our staff joined volunteers to pack and distribute Christmas hampers to families in need as part of the “Everyone deserves a Christmas” project. Each year local schools, community projects and churches nominate families in need to receive a hamper of festive treats, which we helped to fund and pack.
Our staff also joined in the festive spirit and dusted down their best festive knits to raise money for two charities. On National Christmas Jumper day contributions went to Save the Children and on Wednesday 18 December we supported Share, a charity which supports refugees across the world and families in crisis and people who are homeless in North Wales.
