Step by step guide to organizing a Christingle celebration Well-planned and publicised celebrations attract the best turn out and raise the most funds for vulnerable children. Here are some top tips on how to make your Christingle a stress-free success. Before the big day Pick a date, time and place You can hold your Christingle celebration any time between Advent (four weeks before Christmas) and Candlemas (2 February). You can also hold it pretty much anywhere you want. Choose the right event for you It really is up to you what your Christingle involves, from a traditional service with prayers and hymns, to fancy dress and giant Christingle oranges. Just choose something that suits you and will get lots of people attending your event. Decide how you re going to fundraise The money raised by Christingles for The Children s Society really does help to change the stories of children living in poverty. So please do take the time to consider how you can raise the most money from your event. To help you get started, here are some of our fundraising favourites: Hold a collection Use our free Christingle envelopes to ask for donations during your service or celebration. Let guests know beforehand that a collection will take place. Don t forget, you can boost the value of donations by asking guests to complete the Gift Aid details on their collection envelopes. Give out collection candles Leading up to your Christingle, give children some of our free collection candles to fill with loose change. Ask the children to bring their full collection candles to your Christingle celebration. Hold a Christingle cake sale Why not prepare some Christingle themed drinks and snacks and ask people to give
a donation for them? See www.christingle.org for recipe ideas. Throw a Christingle party Hold a party before or after your service and ask people to give a donation to attend. Children could plan the food and music. If life gives you oranges, make marmalade Boil up any leftover oranges and sell Christingle marmalade for a donation. Wear orange for the day If you re holding an event at a school, ask pupils to make a donation to dress in orange for the day. We have many free resources available to order to help you with your fundraising. Download our fundraising hints and tips guide for more inspiration. Get hold of everything you need First things first, you need to work out how many Christingles you ll be making. Once you know that, it s time to get hold of some oranges, red ribbon, sweets, dried fruit and candles. The good thing is you might not have to buy everything. Try asking local shops, including big supermarkets, to donate the items you need in return for some free publicity. Also, don t forget you can order lots of great free resources from us that can help you promote your event, collect donations and deliver the messages you want to teach. These include posters, collection candles and envelopes, and lesson plans. See the Christingle Resource Centre for more information. How to make a Christingle This is where the real fun begins. Encourage children from your church or school and youth groups to make a Christingle a day or two before your event, using the instructions in this section. The basic steps
1. Encourage everyone to wash their hands before handling the sweets and fruit. 2. Take an orange and fasten a piece of red sticky tape around the middle. 3. Cut a small cross in the top of the orange and lay a square of silver foil (75mm or 3 inches square) over it. 4. Stand a candle on top of the foil and wedge it firmly into the orange (the foil should catch the hot wax as it drips). 5. Skewer four cocktail sticks with a mixture of dried fruits or sweets, making sure their sharp points are covered. Insert the sticks into the orange, around a quarter down from its top. 6. Store your Christingles upright in a cool place until they are needed. Remember that the oranges may spoil after a couple of days. It s time to spread the word There s no point organising an amazing Christingle if no one knows about it. So here are some top tips on how to get your service or celebration noticed. Get lots of local children involved Ask children from your church or school and community groups such as Guides and Scouts to make Christingles and be part of your event. Also give them collection candles to fundraise and spread the word about your Christingle. Send out invitations Visit the Christingle Resources Centre to download our printable invitations sheets. Then distribute your invitations in your local community to encourage as many people as possible to attend your event. Stick up lots of posters Order our invitation posters to display in local churches, schools, libraries, doctor s surgeries, gyms and shops. Promote your event online You can publicise your celebration for free by registering your event at www.christingle.org. Facebook, Twitter and your church or school s website or e- newsletter are also great places to promote your event.
Target your local media Tell your local newspapers and radio stations, and community and parish magazines about your Christingle. You can download a sample press release form the Christingle Resources Centre Simply fill it in and send to them. Mention Christingle at other events Coffee mornings, Christmas fairs and other church or school events can provide perfect occasions to publicise your Christingle and raise extra funds. You can also talk about Christingle during services and assemblies in the run up to the big day. On the big day Talk about why Christingle is so important We re sure you ll have lots of great things to say and do on the day of your Christingle. One thing we d really like you to talk about is how a Christingle and the money it raises really does help to improve the health, happiness and education of children living in poverty. Please use the information in this section and Maya s story which you can find in the Christingle Resources Centre to tell everyone why your Christingle is so important. The Children s Society is doing everything it possibly can to change children s stories and create a country where all children are free from disadvantage. But since 1983 the proportion of children living in poverty has doubled, and this figure is still increasing. Today, over three and a half million children live in poverty in the UK. By 2020 there will be over four million. We believe that no child should have their life devastated by poverty. This is why your Christingle is so important. As well as nurturing a child s faith, it can raise vital funds to support the work of The Children s Society. We can then use this money to reach and support children living in poverty and their families, giving them hope when they had none before. Together, we can give every child the greatest possible chance in life.
Be as safe as possible It s always a good idea to make sure candles are firmly inserted into oranges before they are lit. Ask helpers to supervise children during the lighting of their Christingles, making sure the children hold their Christingle still and have any long hair tied back. Also order our safety poster to make sure everyone remains safe who is part of your Christingle. You may also want to think about using glow candles instead of wax candles. Visit www.glow-candles.com to place your order. The Glow Company will donate 7.5% of the price of any glow candles they sell for Christingle events to The Children s Society. Maximise your fundraising Christingle events are always very popular, so don t underestimate how many people will turn up at your event and the number of collection envelopes you might need. To help maximise your fundraising, ask helpers to place a collection envelope and pen on each person s seat before they arrive. Using the envelopes and asking people to complete the Gift Aid information on the back of them will boost donations by a further 25%. Also make sure that your helpers are on standby to receive collection candles and envelopes throughout your event. Remember to ask people to Gift Aid During your service or celebration, remind people that UK taxpayers can boost their donations by 25% by filling in the Gift Aid form on their collection envelope. Make sure there are plenty of pens around to allow people to do this. To encourage people to Gift Aid what they donate, please let them know that Gift Aid donations from Christingle events last year raised 38,000 for The Children s Society.
After the big day Send us your collection envelopes Collect up and send us all the collection envelopes you ve received that have completed Gift Aid details on them. You do not need to send us the envelopes if the Gift Aid details have not been completed. Also remember that you should never send us the envelopes with cash still in them. See below for details of how to bank donations. Post your collection envelopes for free to: Christingle The Children s Society FREEPOST RRYJ-BRSK-KTBY Edward Rudolf House 69-85 Margery Street London WC1X 0JL Bank the money you ve raised Please use the Christingle giro you will have received to pay in all the money your Christingle has raised. If you haven t got a giro, please call 0300 303 7000 or email supportercare@childrenssociety.org.uk Say thank you to everyone Don t forget to say thank you to everyone who helped to make your Christingle such a success. You might want to do this at a service or assembly, put up a poster in your church or school, or make an announcement on your website. This is also an excellent opportunity to announce your fundraising total. By doing this, you will make everyone feel proud of what they ve achieved and hopefully encourage them to take part again next year.