Armed Forces families were treated to a free screening of Arthur Christmas, this week as part of our Christmas Smiles campaign. More than 540 people attended the screenings at the ODEON cinemas in Andover, Leeds, Hereford, Chatham and Lincoln.
Louise, founder of our charity comments: “Christmas Smiles is all about bringing smiles to military children, especially those who will have a parent deployed during the holidays. We know there are lots of military children in the locations we chose. It was wonderful to bring lots of them together and get them excited for Christmas by watching a festive film.”
One Mum said, “As a deployed family this was such a lovely treat for the kids – thank you so so much!”
Another said “Theo is so fond of little troopers and was so happy that he got to go to the cinema. It was so lovely and kickstarted the Xmas time for us after a tough year so it’s really appreciated”
The cinema event is just one of many things that we are doing to support military children this Christmas. We have partnered with Build-A-Bear Foundation to distribute 2,200 teddy bears to military families who are separated due to deployment. Military families can also login to a Santa show and Christmas bake-a-long:
Christmas Bake (everyone can join)
Celebrate the start of the school holidays by joining us for an online Christmas baking event on the 17th December. You will be sent a list of yummy ingredients in advance and everyone is encouraged to bake-a-long together. Cameras on – we want to see your chocolate faces!
Santa show (Pre-school)
Aimed at 2-5 year-olds, this is a magical Christmas show experience where your little ones will be taken on a Christmas adventure in Nursery Rhyme Land to find Santa, but who will they meet along the way this year? The show is 30 minutes long and packed with nursery rhymes, action songs and Christmas favourites. Sign-up to the Little Troopers newsletter to receive the details.
Also don’t forget our Christmas themed Crafty Little Troopers activities. You can find them all here.
