The Hubs as Santa's Grotto!

Hallam Volunteering’s Children’s Christmas Party got underway on the 14^th December with great success. The upstairs pods were transformed into a twinkling Christmas grotto, full of activity and smiling faces. It is hard to believe how a few decorations transformed a night time hotspot into a festive haven for select schoolchildren from the Sheffield area. The bedazzled stairway resembled a gateway to a mythical wonderland that led the children to an evening full of fun, frolicks and food.

The evening began with a quick bite to eat, as all fun-filled evenings should, and then it didn’t take long until the kids were tearing around the pods, making the most of all the fun activities the Volunteering team had laid out for them. Everything was so organised that it was difficult not to feel like a spare-part but I was definitely starting to get the Christmas bug watching the kids split up for their different activities. From the piped-in Christmas music to the twinkling fairy-lights, it would have been enough to melt even Scrooge’s icy heart.

In each pod there were a number of different activities to occupy the children; face-painting, letter-writing, cookie-dressing, pin-the-nose-on-Rudolph, pin-the-bauble-on-the-Christmas-tree, and Santa’s grotto were some of the more sobering activities, but the one that got the excitement flowing had to be the bouncy castle. Against the backdrop of a private screening of Santa Claus: the Movie, this had to be the favourite of the night. After all, bouncy castles are perfect for letting off all that steam after a long day at school.

There was even something for the accompanying toddlers, in the shape of an inflatable ball pool. When they weren’t pottering about the pods on newly-found feet, they were having a whale of a time wading about in the ball pool while the grown-ups looked on with a relaxing cup of coffee close at hand. The Christmas Party definitely had everyone in mind, and not just the visitors. Volunteering Executive, Kate Healey was more than happy to throw herself into the fun and games in her fluffy red hat with blonde woolly pigtails.

Overall it was a lovely experience that the children seemed to thoroughly enjoy, and it was difficult not to keep a smile on your face when seeing them so happy. Job done I’d say! Congratulations to Ellie Greening, Emily Wood and the fantastic Children’s Christmas Party team! You should all be extremely proud of yourselves!