Volunteering for Christmas 🎄♥️ 6 ideas for good deeds

Loneliness affects seniors in care facilities particularly hard, especially during the dark winter months when movement and social interaction are more restricted. With a homemade card, a painting or a short letter, you can do something against it and simply bring a smile to someone’s face.

You can do this:

• Take part in letter campaigns such as the “Pinselpost” from VdK Berlin-Brandenburg or the “Weihnachtspost” from Care & Travel. (more information via the button)
• Organize your own craft project with friends or colleagues and bring the cards to a facility near you.

Across Germany, thousands of volunteers are active in cold aid during the cold season. From October to March, they support homeless people with hot meals, clothing, drinks and a sympathetic ear. Organizations such as Berliner Obdachlosenhilfe, Caritas and the Bahnhofsmission do valuable work and welcome every helping hand.

You can do this:

• Help sort clothes and donations in a clothing store.
• Help serve food or accompany a mobile aid tour through your city.
• Take on a night shift or assist with the reception and accommodation of guests.

If you would like to find out more, you can find lots of practical tips in our blog posts:

• To the article: Volunteer & donate for cold aid 2025/26
• Zum Beitrag: Cold Aid 2025/26: Hotlines & Cold Buses in Your City

There are also many opportunities for you to get involved in helping the homeless outside of cold weather aid.

What would Christmas and the festive season be without all the cozy events? Christmas markets, craft activities and small celebrations bring people together and often offer the opportunity to volunteer.

This is because many organizations are looking for volunteers during the Advent season to help with the set-up, sales or activities for children. By volunteering, you can be part of the festive atmosphere and do something good at the same time.

You can do this:

• Support stands of organizations at a Christmas market, for example by serving food or collecting donations.
• Support a Christmas event for children or senior citizens, for example by crafting, singing or distributing presents.
• Organize a free Christmas dinner together with others.

Cohesion and tolerance are always important components of a functioning society. But especially at Christmas time, community and charity have a special significance. You can take this as an opportunity to volunteer for a project that promotes better coexistence.

You can do this:

• Get involved in intercultural encounter projects, for example cooking evenings or language cafés.
• Support neighborhood initiatives or spend time with senior citizens in care facilities.
• Become a sponsor or mentor for children, young people or newcomers and support them with their homework, everyday tasks or language learning.
• Help with leisure and educational activities that bring people together and strengthen social participation.

On vostel.de you can find many more projects that promote social cohesion in your city or digitally from home.

There is not always time to volunteer yourself. Nevertheless, you can make a big difference by supporting organizations with donations. The need for warm clothing, durable food and financial resources to help people in difficult situations increases, especially during the Christmas season.

Whether a monetary donation, winter clothing in good condition or hygiene articles – any support helps to maintain social services and give people a little warmth and optimism.

So you can donate things:

• Take warm clothes, toiletries or toys to local collection points or clothing banks in your area. The best way to find these is to search online.
• Use Gabenzäune (gift fences) in your city. You can find places near you on Gabenzaun.de.
• Use the donations in kind tool on vostel.de and support organizations with exactly what they need.

You can find more information about donations in kind and drop-off locations in our corresponding blog post.

This is how you can donate money:

• Search on the donation platform betterplace.org for projects or initiatives that you would like to support.
• Gift a donation or sponsorship to friends or family this Christmas, for example via Oxfam Unpacked.
• Collect donations together with colleagues in the office or at your Christmas party and support an organization of your choice.

Whether small or large amounts, individual donations or regular support: every bit of help counts and makes a difference.

Many companies use the Christmas season to volunteer in social causes together. At social team events, you support charitable organizations as a team – directly on site or digitally – and experience meaningful cooperation at the same time.

So you can become active:

• Support a local organization on a Social Day – e.g. by sorting donations, doing gardening or renovation work or helping the homeless.
• Get creative together as a team and use your results directly for social projects – for example by making gift packages for people in need or creating Christmas cards for senior citizens
• Use your expertise to provide targeted support to non-profit organizations in pro bono projects – for example on design or communication topics, IT issues or strategic challenges.

The vostel.de team will be happy to support you in the planning and execution of your team events – from finding ideas to organising and implementing them.