The charity Little Troopers has the announced details of its 2024 Christmas Smiles campaign to support military children who have a parent deployed over the festive period.
With support from BAE Systems and Vivo Defence Services, Little Troopers will once again be sending out 2,500 special Christmas boxes to military children who are separated from their serving parent this December. Each Christmas box will be packed with Little Troopers resources to help children through deployment, a Little Troopers book and other treats to bring Christmas Smiles to thousands of forces children.
As well as the Christmas boxes, Little Troopers has organised a busy calendar of free festive events and activities, including a magical storytelling event with the Chelsea Pensioners at the Royal Hospital in London, a free screening of Paddington in Peru at five ODEON cinemas and an online pantomime and elf workshop that families can join wherever they are posted in the world.
The charity is also working with local theatres to giveaway pantomime tickets throughout December.
Louise Fetigan, founder of Little Troopers comments: “Christmas is such a difficult time of year to have a parent away which is why our charity works especially hard throughout November and December to ensure all forces children know we are here for them and that they have somewhere to turn.
We are thrilled to be delivering our Christmas boxes again after they were such a success last year and we hope that many families will also enjoy our online and in-person events that aim to bring some Christmas Smiles to all the little troopers out there.”
Calendar of events 16th November: Cookstars online baking – now open for bookings here. 30th November: Storytelling with the Chelsea Pensioners. Register your interest here. 8th December: Cinderella Pantomime (online) – now open for bookings here. 14th December: Elf workshops (online). Now open for bookings here.
21st December: Free cinema screenings of Paddington in Peru at ODEON cinemas in Andover, Chatham, Leeds, Hereford and Port Solent. Bookings will open in December.
For more information and to receive links to book the cinema events, please register to receive the Little Troopers newsletter here. The charity will also be running Christmas giveaways including pantomime tickets via the newsletter, so don’t miss out!
Christmas Boxes
Little Troopers works directly with military units across all three services to distribute the Christmas boxes to the families impacted by deployment. Welfare personnel are encouraged to register their interest in receiving a batch of boxes if they have personnel deployed before 8th November.
The charity will also post out a small number of boxes directly to families closer to Christmas. Details about how to apply for these individual boxes will be released via the charity’s newsletter in December.
For more information visit littletroopers.net