Palace for Life Christmas wrap up
Another busy festive period in south London saw plenty of surprises, memories made and lives changed with our A South London Christmas campaign. A huge thank you goes to the Crystal Palace players who helped make Christmas extra special for so many young south Londoners.
Marc and Ebs surprise the DS Eagles
A routine day at the Crystal Palace Academy turned into a Christmas cracker for our Down’s Syndrome football team, the DS Eagles, when Marc Guéhi and Eberechi Eze made unexpected appearances at the club’s Christmas retail shoot.
Hugh, Louis, James, Thomas, and Ruari thought they were simply there to model some of the latest Crystal Palace gear for the cameras. Little did they know, Palace captain Marc Guéhi was behind the curtain, waiting for the perfect moment to jump out and give them a festive surprise.
Not to be outdone, the DS Eagles decided to turn the tables on Palace star Eberechi Eze, next. When he arrived on set, it was the team’s turn to return favour!
40 families meet Santa and meet Palace stars at third Christmas Grotto
Matheus França, Aimee Everett and Millie Gejl joined south London families for our third Christmas Grotto in a row as part of our A South London Christmas campaign.
One in four children in Croydon grow up in poverty, and many more families continue to be deeply affected by the cost of living crisis and cannot afford to provide a special Christmas for their children.
That’s why we’ve been supporting local families this Christmas with our Selhurst Park Christmas Grotto for the third year running, and you can donate here.
We invited 40 local families to Selhurst Park to meet Santa and his elves last week. They all received presents they otherwise wouldn’t get this year, as well as a £20 Aldi voucher for their family to help them towards their big Christmas shop.
Palace Women Secret Santa visit
The traditional Secret Santa is a staple of many a close group – but this year, Crystal Palace Women took that one step wider, by spreading it to the Forest Academy in Croydon.
As midfielder Chloe Arthur herself explained: “This year, as well as last year, we decided as a team – instead of Secret Santa – to go out in pairs and buy presents for kids at a local school, just to make their whole Christmas.
“The looks on their faces were priceless! It was the most wholesome day. We’re so, so grateful that we got to come down to the school, meet the kids and give them their presents, which they weren’t expecting.
“Last year we started it, but it was something that became so important to us that we’ve done it again this year, and hopefully in the coming years, we’ll continue to do it.”
Bringing warmth to refugees with the Shahid Afridi Foundation
We teamed up with the Shahid Afridi Foundation and the Nazi Awan Foundation to distribute essential winter supplies for refugees in need. Staff from our Get Involved Asian engagement programme helped pack and distribute the items.
