• Students of a city school went to a home for underprivileged children to celebrate Christmas with them. The kids from the NGO visited the school and sang carols during the assembly.
• Around 2,000 kids celebrated Christmas with games, music, and cakes, who would otherwise be drowned in the drudgery of household chores.
• Children from an NGO in Howrah whose parents struggle to earn a living welcomed children from the streets to share their Christmas snacks.

Christmas is about bonhomie, camaraderie, and inclusiveness, said officials of several organisations who tried to make the festival special and engaging.

Before the school closed for the winter, Mahadevi Birla World Academy students went to a home run by the NGO Calcutta Social Project. They interacted with the children, sang and danced with them.

On the same day, the children from Calcutta Social Project went to Mahadevi Birla World Academy and participated in their school assembly.

“Usually, only the children from Calcutta Social Project visit us during Christmas. This year, we wanted our students to visit the home. Initially, our students and the NGO kids were not very comfortable. But once they started talking the scene changed drastically, the air filled with laughter and joy,” said Nupur Ghosh, vice principal, Mahadevi Birla World Academy.

Some of our students knew some of the NGO kids from before because they have an ongoing reading partnership.

The CEO of Calcutta Social Project, Mohuna Dutt, said such initiatives foster inclusiveness.

“This kind of interaction fosters inclusiveness and kinship where the children are taking a step ahead and crossing boundaries to be in each other’s company,” said Dutt.

A winter camp for the children of Future Hope started on December 23 on the Maidan.

During the 10-day camp, the kids will play rugby and participate in various activities.

“We want to keep our children occupied during the winter vacation, or else they will be engaged in some chore or be left wandering about. They go back with some food in their belly,” said Paul Walsh of Future Hope.

“We are doing this for 10 mornings for 500 children and on Christmas there were 2,000 children from all over the city,” he said.

Celebrity chef Shaun Kenworthy is providing us with breakfast, said Walsh.

“We have been doing it for a few years and have involved some hotels and restaurants. We got a good response. We do it in other cities as well and during the 10 days we cater to about 15,000 to 18,000 children,” he said Kenworthy.

While big brands get involved in spreading Christmas cheer, a small NGO in Horwah’s Baghnan taught their children the “joy of giving.”

“Our children come from families where their parents struggle to make ends meet. On Christmas, the children were given a special food packet. While we handed them the packets, we asked them to invite 10 children from the streets and share the food with them,” said Tanmoy Patra, founder of Howrah Vivekananada Siksha Kendra.