As Christmas gets closer and closer, we have rounded up some of the best Christmas charity campaigns we have seen so far this year.
Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day
Today Save the Children is hosting its annual Christmas jumper day where it encourages people up and down the country to don their Christmas jumpers and donate £2 to “make the world better with a sweater” and help the world’s children look forward to a brighter future.
The charity encourages, schools, workplaces, friends and individuals to get involved by wearing their “daftest, most wonderful woollies – all for a great cause”. The charity wants to make it the “biggest, silliest fay ever”.
The campaign, which last year saw more than five million people ledge to take part, has received the backing of numerous celebrities, and the waxworks of Theresa May and Boris Johnson at Madam Tussauds have even got involved.
NSPCC’s Letter from Santa
NSPCC is again running its Letter from Santa campaign where, for a donation to the charity, children can receive a personalised letter from Santa.
As part of the campaign NSPCC has commissioned some research and asked children a series of questions about Santa.
When asked if Santa could do one thing to make life better for children what would it be?’ more than a quarter said they would ask him to make sure every child had a gift to open this Christmas.
Ensuring all children had enough to eat polled 8 per cent, Santa using his special powers so that all young people could go to school received 7 per cent while a further 6 per cent said they wished he could make sure everyone was healthy.
Other responses were less in the festive spirit. A couple of the best questions children wanted to ask Santa were:
- What do reindeer really like to eat? Carrots are boring. 6-8 year old boy South East
- Where can I get an application to become an elf? 9-11 year old girl North East
- Why are you so fat? 9-11 year old girl Northern Ireland
- Do you know how to do loop-the-loops in your sleigh? 9 -11 year old boy North West
- How come you don’t die? You’re really old. 9-11 year old boy West Midlands
WWF highlights illegal poaching
Willdlife charity WWF Christmas campaign doesn’t have quite the same festive feel. Emotive in an entirely different way, the charity has chosen to focus their campaign on illegal poaching. The one-minute film entitled ‘Just Like Us’ shows the devastating loss an elephant feels when it sees its herd attacked and killed by poachers for their tusks.
Written and produced by All Mighty Pictures it shows the entire tear-jerking scene through the reflection in an elephant’s eye.
WWF is appealing for urgent donations this Christmas to help fund its work worldwide, including bringing down the illegal wildlife trade.
RSPCA’s Woody the Christmas Pup
The animal charity’s video tells the tale of Woody the Christmas pup who is thrown out with the rubbish before being rescued and taken in for care by the RSPCA.
Made to highlight the charity’s Kindness at Christmas campaign, it features an acoustic cover of the Simply Red song Stars, written by Mick Hucknall, performed by singer Lucy Ellie.
Proceeds from the single are being donated to the RSPCA to help in their work rescuing, rehabilitating and rehoming thousands of animals every year. The charity is expecting to take in around 19,000 animals this winter.
Age UK’s No one should have no one
Age UK has launched its Christmas campaign ‘No one should have no one’ with a film that shines a light on the “crushing, chronic loneliness which 1.2m older people are living with in England.
The film, Just another day, follows an older man’s unchanging daily routine without human contact across the seasons, of which Christmas is just another day.
A survey from the charity estimates that getting on towards a million (873,000) people aged 65 and over don’t see or hear from someone for days on end over the festive period.
And that at Christmas time, on days when older people do not see or hear from anyone, over half (55 per cent) rely on the TV for companionship
Charity Retail Association's #GoodCauseSantaClaus
The body that represents the interest of charity retailers is running a campaign for the UK's "secret santas" to make sure their gift buring spreads even more Christmas joy this year by choosing to shop in charity shops.
The Charity Retail Association is suggesting that players go one further and limit their gift buying for the popular tradition of secret santa - buying anonymous gifts for a friend or colleague - to charity shops alone. The CRA says this would "raise much needed additional funds for charities in the run up to Christmas".
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