Giving back at Christmas: charity appeals and gifts

The concept store in aid of the refugee crisis: Choose Love pop-up store

Nestled among the various fashion chains and designer boutiques in Carnaby Street is a pop-up shop with a difference: Choose Love. Established by Help Refugees, the world’s first store to sell physical products for refugees is back for another festive season. The Carnaby shop is an educational experience as much as it's a charitable one, inviting shoppers to learn why each item is useful to a displaced person.

Visitors can purchase items for any stage of a refugee's journey, from food and water to warm winter coats and baby gear. This year, a Covid-19 support pack has also launched.

Limited-edition tees and 'Choose Love' prints are popular, and you'll also find customisable gift cards. Prices start at just a fiver and go up to £550, for anyone who wants to buy the whole store. Choose Love is currently supporting over 120 projects around the globe to help refugees and those who have been displaced.

Click here for more on Choose Love

The charity that lets you sponsor a homeless Londoner: Beam

Beam is a social enterprise helping to support homeless Londoners by giving homeless people the skills and support networks they need. You can crowdfund someone to support their journey, and get updated on their progress along the way.

Beam has set up a 'Donate Your Christmas Party' campaign; whether you're doing a Zoom wine tasting or quiz night or heading out for a socially distanced skating session, you can support Beam's initiatives.

Click here for more information on how to donate to Beam

The candy-coloured artists' haven: JOY Bomb pop-up

The sky is grey and some of our moods are even greyer, but artist Amy Broch has an antidote for Londoners in need of some festive cheer.

Her JOY Bomb pop-up art installation is all supersized balloons, cartoon animal inflatables and pink and purple furry furniture. Pop by any time for a sensory overload – visible from the street – of the best kind, or head over on Friday or Saturday, where actors bring the mood to life, in a socially distanced way.

All proceeds from JOY Bomb installations go to the Healey Center for ALS, in memory of Broch's husband, who tragically passed away from this neurological disease.

Click here for more on the JOY Bomb pop-up

The fashion brands giving back: Rites Charity Auction and Inez and Vinoodh's Double Dutch

We're all embracing preloved fashion for sustainable reasons –and the fact we've got the most unique pieces as a result – and Rites takes it one step further with its Designers Against Inequality festive charity auction, where 100% of proceeds will go to the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust.

There are some incredible brands taking part, including Balenciaga, Gucci, Stella McCartney, Saint Laurent, Proenza Schouler and more, with a fantastic array of handbags, accessories and head-turning clothes available to snap up.

Click here for Rites' Charity Auction

Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin are two of fashion's most celebrated names, and they also want to be forces for positive change. The photographers are launching Double Dutch this month, a cash-giving app that donates to charity and gives you a gorgeous digital card created by a top artist like William Wegman or Sterling Ruby in the process. The goal is to incentivise the charity-giving process, so it's about spreading goodwill – and getting a gorgeous virtual art collection, too. Plus, it will help to minimise the $16 billion worth of holiday gifts chucked out (in the States) each year.

Click here to sign up to Double Dutch

The charity Christmas crackers to buy: Advent of Change

Looking for a Christmas cracker with a difference? Instead of more waste and plastic tat, Advent of Change's festive crackers are eco-friendly, plastic-free, recyclable – and filled with donations.

Each cracker donates £2 to a different charity, ranging from frontline worker support to helping homeless children. Eight per cent of proceeds go to a total of 24 different charities, and Advent of Change also has the most unique jokes around, collected from celebrities like Joanna Lumley and Ben Fogle, as well as responsibly sourced paper crowns.

Click here for Advent of Change Christmas crackers

The shopping centre pop-ups: Westfield and Wandsworth Southside

Heading to Westfield or Wandsworth Southside for a spot of Christmas shopping or a tasty hot choc? Don't miss the charitable pop-ups that have set up shop this month.

Until 13 December, pop into Westfield for A Very Rental Christmas, a pop-up that allows you to rent the latest in interiors looks so your home feels fabulous through the festive period. Styles include Japandi -–Japanese and Scandinavian minimalism, combined – and a 30s-inspired Great Gatsby. All proceeds go to Save the Children's Christmas initiative. Instead of a load of waste at the end of the month, you simply return your Christmas goodies in early January.

For those in southwest London, Wandsworth's Southside shopping centre has a preloved pop-up, with multiple charitable organisations, courtesy of the Rainbow Rising Initiative. With secondhand furniture and toys courtesy of Wandsworth Oasis, Fix Your Cycle bike repairs, a community café run by BondedThruCancer and an art gallery courtesy of The Muse, there's plenty to entice – and you may even find a stylish new sofa, refurbed thanks to the Richmond Furniture Scheme or Groundwork London.

Photo: A Very Rental Christmas

The charity helping rehabilitate prisoners: Fine Cell Work

Fine Cell Work is a criminal justice charity working to enable prisoners to build fulfilling and crime-free lives by training them to do skilled, creative needlework – undertaken in their prison cells – with the aim of it fostering hope, discipline and self-esteem. The handmade felt baubles make a gorgeous and heartfelt gift.

Click here for more on Fine Cell Work

The cookery school supporting refugees: Migrateful

At Migrateful, you can learn how to make exquisite dishes from around the world, while supporting people originally from those countries. Both a cookery school and language initiative, Migrateful supports asylum seekers, refugees and migrants who are struggling to access employment in the UK due to legal and linguistic barriers, by lending them a hub from which they can teach the public how to make their nation's traditional cuisine.

Pick between a range of virtual cooking classes (there are also in-person ones in Peckham), including in Albanian, Bengali, Sudanese and Syrian cuisine. As well as learning international recipes, these fun and easy-going classes are a chance to practise a different language and enjoy a cultural exchange, all for a good cause.

Click here for more on Migrateful

The charity uniting people through art this Christmas: WIILMA

East London-based charity WIILMA is calling on the public to indulge their creative sides to help those who are most vulnerable and isolated this Christmas.

WIILMA has launched a lockdown Art Competition for artists of all ages and abilities. Choose from three themes – Black History, the traditions of a culture of interest or a quotation that shaped 2020 for you. The works will be displayed as part of an exhibition at Leyton and Leytonstone Library, and a panel of judges will select a winner.

WIILMA is also working on a live-streamed concert for Christmas, featuring musicians from The Royal Albert Hall and many more, which can be enjoyed on YouTube or Facebook Live from the comfort of home.

Click here for more information on WIILMA

The charity spreading the joy of reading far and wide: Book Aid

If, for you, a large part of Christmas involves curling up with a good book, why not pay forward that pleasure? Book Aid International is a charity based on the principle that everyone should have the opportunity to read, whatever their circumstances.

Working both locally and abroad, the charity supplies books to libraries and organisations in schools, prisons and refugee camps. Reverse Book Tokens, whereby you send books to people who need them most, start at just £2.

Click here for more on Book Aid

The SIM card helping the homeless: Tesco Mobile x Crisis

The power of connection through technology has never been more keenly felt than in the past several months. Help ensure that those who are sleeping rough are connected thanks to this Tesco Mobile x Crisis initiative.

Buy a virtual Christmas (SIM) card as a donation from £5, which will be used to purchase phones and devices so Crisis members can reconnect with essential services and family members.

Click here for more information on the Christmas (SIM) Card

The charities feeding the homeless this Christmas: Kensington and Chelsea Christmas Collective

The Kensington and Chelsea Christmas Collective unites a selection of charities – Age UK, the NHS Grenfell Health and Wellbeing Service, mental health charity SMART, The Dalgarno Trust, Dads House and Venture Community Association to help residents in this London borough, including the elderly and vulnerable and families relying on free school meals.

You can help with their Christmas in a Box initiative, by making a donation so those in need can receive hearty meals and groceries this festive season, as well as providing entertainment through local choirs performing in the neighbourhood. The Christmas Collective is aiming to deliver over 4,000 boxes this month.

Contribute to the Christmas Collective here

Photo: @Purzlbaum/Unsplash

The charities looking out for our four-legged friends: The Donkey Sanctuary, and RSPCA

If carols and Christmas cards have got you thinking about little donkeys plodding through the winter’s night, you might want to make a donation to The Donkey Sanctuary this Christmas. The charity operates 10 sanctuaries around the UK and Europe, giving lifelong care to over 6,000 donkeys and reaching 1.8 million donkeys in total worldwide.

Donors can choose to either give a one-off donation, set up a direct debit or even adopt a donkey for £3 a month. Gifters will be told the name, birthday and location of their donkey, and sent two framed portraits of their new furry friend, too.

Click here to support The Donkey Sanctuary

Another charity looking out for vulnerable animals this Christmas is the RSPCA. Through its Christmas Rescue appeal, you can help an animal that's been abused or abandoned.

Click here to support the RSPCA

The condiments brand giving back to the planet: Rubies in the Rubble

Those hoping to stock the cupboards with ethical goods this Christmas should look to Rubies in the Rubble, a start-up with a mission to tackle food waste and CO2 emissions by sourcing and saving local fruit and veg that would otherwise be thrown away – turning these into delicious chutneys, jams and other condiments. The award-winning results can be found in the likes of Harrods, Fortnums, Ocado, Not On The High Street and Whole Foods, and can also be bought online.

Shop the Rubies in the Rubble range

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