A very merry Paddington Christmas

As we wave goodbye to 2024, we want to say a massive thank you to all our wonderful volunteers who have supported the Paddington Community during the festive season. In the lead up to Christmas, 200 volunteers from 11 companies contributed 493 hours of festive joy to schools and charities in Paddington, truly making it a Christmas to remember.

Christmas 2024 officially started in November, with the wonderful volunteers from Kingfisher braving the cold weather to visit The Happy Hub and decorate a much-loved Christmas truck, which transported Father Christmas and his reindeer to the annual Christmas light switch on Queen’s Park.

A few days later the team from Heathrow Express decorated St Mary Magdalene & St Stephen’s Primary School for Christmas. HEX volunteers put their creativity to the test drawing festive designs on the school windows and threaded hundreds of paper chains to be hung around the school.

Volunteers from M&S brought lots of festive joy throughout December and teams hosted a Christmas craft workshop for pupils at St Peter’s Primary School and created a sensory Christmas grotto at College Park School. M&S volunteers also supported local learning disability charity LDN to decorate ahead of their annual, inclusive Christmas Party, installing multiple Christmas trees and balloon arches ready for over 200 LDN members to sing and dance the night away.

Vodafone volunteers have been adding festive sparkle, decorating schools in Paddington and hosting a Christmas Party at Open Age, offering companionship to local older people. For the second year in a row, Vodafone have supported King Solomon Academy at their annual Winter Fair, helping to run craft stalls, games and letters to Santa.

Vodafone have been especially generous this Christmas and donated 25 Christmas presents to members at LDN and residents at The Penfold Community Hub, a local care home. The presents were well-received by individuals who may not be receiving gifts at Christmas.

Festive helpers from Equinor also got together to decorate The Tresham Centre. The team created warm and welcoming displays in the reception of the Tresham Centre and decorated activity spaces with Christmas lights and decorations.

December is Forever Caring Month at Convatec and to celebrate, volunteers put on their Christmas jumpers and wrapped 206 Christmas presents for local school children, decorated Daventry House, a local care home celebrating its first Christmas with residents and built a immersive Winter Wonderland for Paddington families to enjoy at The Happy Hub.

2024 has been another busy but hugely rewarding year. In total, 37 Paddington companies have given over 7,500 hours to support the local community. We are in awe of our brilliant volunteers and look forward to seeing what rewarding projects 2025 will bring!

If you inspired to get involved, get in touch with our Community team to find out how you can help in Paddington all year round.