A Truly ‘Wonderful Winter’
From the 19th – 22nd December, we ran a series of family fun events that were free to families with children on free school meals, who received a council issued ‘HAF code’. We packed in as many fun activities as we possibly could across the four days, and we had an amazing time with all the families who came!
Sunday 19th December – The ‘Neverland’ Pantomime
For the first day of our events we took families to the YWAM Kings Lodge venue to see a pantomime put on by the Saltmine Theatre Company. Neverland is a reimagined version of Peter Pan, and we had a wonderful time crying ‘He’s behind you!!’ and laughing at the antics of the characters. Free popcorn was made available as well as drinks, and at the end we all headed outside to enjoy burgers and hotdogs courtesy of Russell’s catering.
Monday 20th December – A Wonderful Winter at Saints
Day two saw us head on over to Saints for a day of food and fun. We made our own bread to go with some tasty soups, we made peppermint creams and lots of fun winter crafts. A free snack buffet, tea coffee and squash was available all day for parents and children (this continue throughout the week). Every child who came got to go and visit Santa in his magical winter grotto, and get a gift to take away! We also had a walk through experience based on the Narnia film ‘The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe’ for families to enjoy exploring, meeting characters along the way!
Tuesday 21st December – A Wonderful Winter at Saints
Day three was held at Saints again, with Santa’s grotto and Narnia open to all. We made pizzas together and cooked them in our wood fired pizza oven outside, some of us even tried adding Brussel sprouts as a Christmas challenge! We made snowy slime and Christmas tree decorations aplenty, and we even had a special visit from Santa’s reindeer.
Wednesday 22nd December – A Wonderful Winter at Saints
On our last day we wanted to go out with a bang! To begin with we ran all of the activities we had run over the past few days as well as decorating gingerbread men and making some lovely paper lanterns. But at 3.30pm we all headed outside to meet some sheep and donkeys and watch a special live nativity performance by the Manna Arts Theatre Company with mince pies and hot chocolate. We then headed back inside and enjoyed hot dogs and burgers together as a celebration.
We want to thank all of our wonderful volunteers for coming together to make this event special for the families of Nuneaton, and the Warwickshire County Council for granting us funding to make it free for families on free school meals!
