Planning to celebrate Christmas in a fun yet meaningful way this year?
Here’s how you can, in FOUR simple ways!
Dine for others to shine
Soak in the Christmas cheer with friends and family over a delicious meal and do some good while at it.
Seeds Café in Rainbow Centre
Part of Rainbow Centre, Seeds Café is a charity that helps improve the lives of those living with disability. The cafe provides them with training opportunities so they can eventually find work opportunities in the F&B industry. Check out the café walls which are decked in colourful artwork done by the students and are up for sale!
Find them at: 501 Margaret Drive Singapore 149306
Foreword Coffee
We love this coffee joint’s spiced chai latte and espresso-based drinks. What we love more is how Foreword Coffee employs persons with disabilities and special needs as service staff and baristas. This Christmas season, Foreword Coffee is donating $1 to the President’s Challenge for every Pay-It-Foreword token purchased between December 1 to 14. Available at all three outlets at Civil Service College, Centre for Healthcare Innovation, and Temasek Shophouse.
APSN Café for All by Association for Persons with Special Needs
The APSN Cafe for all offers those with special needs an opportunity to hone their pastry-making skills. Guided by instructors, they are first taught basic hygiene and service skills as well as kitchen safety. You’ll also spot a vertical greenhouse filled with herbs, spices and vegetables at the back of the café – all the better for them to offer farm-to-table freshness. Give their Nasi Lemak and Peri Peri Chicken a try!
This Christmas, their ‘Pay It Forward’ initiative lets you purchase meal vouchers to leave on the café’s blackboard for less-fortunate strangers.
Find them at: 11 Jln Ubi, #01-31 Block 4, Singapore 409074
Eat out at over 50 F&B outlets to support youth-in-need
What do Tiong Bahru Bakery, Pollen restaurant and Manhattan Bar have in common? Besides being some of Singapore’s trendiest eateries and bars, they will be banding together with over 40 other establishments to support volunteer group Beautiful People’s Dine to Dream campaign. When you patronise any of the F&B outlets that are part of their campaign, you’ll be nudging those businesses to give back to the youth-in-need whom Beautiful People helps – whether it’s donating a dollar for every patron, or a portion of the proceeds of a meal or drink. Check out participating eateries and bars here: www.beautifulpeople.org.sg/dine-to-dream/
Shop for presents with a cause
These stores are a guilt-free shopaholic’s dream.
Purchase from Social Gifting
Shop something at Social Gifting for your loved ones and a little extra goes to someone in need. You’ll find exquisite gifts such as hand-made cushion covers, necklaces, bag charms and plushies crafted or packed by crafters who wish to find employment but are unable to do so due to physical constraints or caregiving duties – for instance, people with autism, cancer, mental illness, stay-at-home mums and seniors.
Motherswork’s Giving Tree
Do you enjoy seeing the grin on children’s faces when they receive presents? This giving season, Motherswork’s, a retailer of mother, baby and children products, is partnering HCSA Community Services to fulfil wishes of children beneficiaries. Do visit their in-store Giving Tree and bless a child this Christmas.
Check out their stores here: https://www.motherswork.com.sg/pages/stores
Pet Lovers Centre
Planning to stock up on treats for your pets? Why not participate in Pet Lovers Centre’s pet food drive this festive season. Purchase an extra bag or two of food which will be donated to feed the animals at Action for Singapore Dogs, Cat Welfare Society and Noah’s Ark CARES.
Check out their stores here:
https://www.petloverscentre.com/locations
Watch a meaningful movie
Make it a friends and family affair and use the opportunity to talk about the giving values in these films!
Last Christmas
CR: Jonathan Prime/ Universal Pictures
This ‘feel good’ Yuletide romance movie stars Michelle Yeoh and Henry Golding – but it’s far from Crazy Rich Asians. Sparks develop when Tom (Henry Golding), who volunteers at a nearby homeless shelter, is always present for Kate (Emilia Clarke) whose life is in a downward spiral. Thanks to Tom, she learns to show love and care for others and herself.
A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
A child-friendly movie, enjoy the celebration of friendship and love between Shaun and Lu-La as he goes out of his way to bring Lu-La back to her lost spaceship.
Spies In Disguise
Have you encountered someone completely different from you and find it difficult to ‘love thy neighbour’? Watch how two spies, who are complete opposites, are forced to work together and eventually bring out the best in each other.
Volunteer Your Time
WWF Rewrap Project
In 2018, Singaporeans contributed to 1 million tonnes of paper waste – that’s 17 million trees! Make your Christmas a greener one by volunteering with WWF’s Rewrap project to help wrap gifts and make origami with responsibly-sourced paper. Sign up here.
Hair Trimming sessions at Ang Mo Kio – Thye Hua Kwan Hospital
Nobody likes experiencing bad hair days and it’s much thanks to volunteers who started hair-cutting sessions at Thye Hua Kwan Hospital that the seniors no longer have to worry about bad hair. Come volunteer your time and bring Christmas cheers to these seniors too. You can also help manage the queue and assist the nursing staff with wheeling the seniors around. Sign up here.
Y Arts Challenge @ YMCA Special Talents, Arts and Recreation Society (Y STARS
Be a befriender to youths with special needs every 1st, 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month. These youths may have special needs, but they possess unique talents in dance and performing arts. Perhaps you might even pick up some tricks in dance or at their art and craft sessions. Sign up here.
Landscape, Farm maintenance & housekeeping at Kampung Kampus, a nature-inspired camp
Have a tropical Christmas at Kampung Kampus, Singapore’s 21st Century ‘School of Life’ in a nature-inspired campus. Founded by Groundup Initiative, volunteers can hone their gardening skills with a variety tasks ranging from watering the plants to weeding and trimming them. Occasional housekeeping duties around the premises will be required too. Sign up here.
