7 Ideas & Projects for your volunteering around Christmas
As soon as the summer is over, many people start planning for Christmas and the festive season. Volunteering is becoming an increasingly important part of this for both private individuals and companies. This is because the time before the turn of the year means reflecting on what is really important, what connects us and the question of how we can support others – especially in turbulent times.
Here we give you 7 ideas on how you can get involved with volunteering for your fellow human beings at Christmas – as a private individual or together with colleagues as part of social team events.
Here’s how you can get involved with volunteering during the Christmas time:
- Paint & craft for lonely people in care facilities
- Give warmth in the homeless and cold aid
- Volunteer at christmas events
- Support projects for more togetherness & cohesion
- Donate clothes & items for people in need
- Donate money to charitable organizations & initiatives
- Get involved with colleagues at social team events
1. Paint & craft for lonely people in care facilities
Loneliness hits senior citizens and people in care facilities particularly hard during the darker months of the year and at Christmas. To bring some variety and colour into their everyday care routine, you can easily make someone very happy with a small letter or a craft. On vostel.de, you will find the projects ‘Pinselpost’ by VdK Berlin-Brandenburg or ‘Weihnachtspost’ by Care & Travel, which provide all the important information.
Of course, you can also look for a care facility near you yourself and start a small postcard and craft initiative together with friends and family.
2. Give warmth in the homeless & cold aid
Homeless and homeless people are particularly dependent on support during the cold season. There are numerous organizations throughout Germany that are involved in cold aid from November to April and send warming buses through the cities. They provide people on the street with hot meals, drinks and a sympathetic ear. In addition, the emergency shelters open their doors and allow people to spend the night in a clean bed after a hot meal and a shower.
You can support the organizations in this work: in serving food in a shelter or on the street, in supervising a night shift or behind the scenes sorting donations in kind. No matter what you decide to do, by volunteering you are giving someone a piece of warmth.
3. Volunteer at christmas events
What would Christmas and the holidays be without terribly cozy events? Christmas markets entice visitors with warm drinks, music and twinkling lights. We are baking cookies together with friends and family. And of course, Christmas events with colleagues are also a must. How nice that you can combine all these activities around Christmas with volunteering. Here you can discover how.
4. Support projects for more togetherness & cohesion
Cohesion and tolerance are important components of a functioning society. And not just at Christmas time, of course. Nevertheless, community and charity have a special significance at this time. You can take this as an opportunity to get involved in a project for better coexistence. For example, at intercultural cooking events, card game evenings with older people, as a mentor for newcomers or as a sponsor for children. There are many possibilities, discover yours now.
5. Donate clothes & items for people in need
Most of us have a lot of things lying around in drawers and cupboards at home that are no longer needed. This includes items of clothing as well as books that have been read, toys and old technology. At the same time, there are many people who would be happy to receive these items: as warm clothes for themselves or as gifts for Christmas that they would otherwise not be able to afford.
In our special article on donations in kind, we show you where you can hand in items to clothing stores, charity shops and collection points in your city and what you should bear in mind when doing so. You can also donate items via vostel.de. Just browse through the organizations’ requests and see if you actually own any of these items and can give them away. Here you will also find special donation opportunities at Christmas time.
6. Donate money to charitable organizations & initiatives
In many cases, monetary donations can achieve even more than donations in kind. This is because they give organizations the opportunity to buy exactly the things that are needed. Therefore, you can also consider making a Christmas donation to an organization that supports an issue that is important to you.
On betterplace.org you can search for specific donation purposes and find exactly the organization you want to support. Whether to help the homeless, to support people in crisis and war regions or for environmental protection. The variety is huge and you are sure to find something suitable for you here. And if not, you can easily start a fundraising campaign yourself.
Cash donations also make a great Christmas present. For example, how about giving a donation in the form of a goat, a donkey or a dove of peace to friends and family? Sounds exciting? Then you should definitely take a look at the Oxfam Unverpackt website.
7. Get involved with colleagues at social team events
Many companies today allow their employees to volunteer as part of their working lives. This often happens particularly during the Christmas period as part of social team events. This involves teams working together to support charitable organisations in social, ecological or cultural projects of all kinds.
The vostel.de team will be happy to support you in the planning and realisation of such a team event. Talk to us, we look forward to hearing from you.
Your vostel.de team wishes you lots of fun volunteering over Christmas & the holidays!
No Comments yet!