Today we are launching a bumper Christmas Smiles campaign to bring smiles to the faces of as many military children as possible over the holidays. From free teddy bears, to cinema tickets, panto tickets, online giveaways and more, there are plenty of things to keep your children entertained this Christmas.
2,000 free Build-A-Bear teddies
1,800 bears have already been shipped to various units across all three services to distribute to families..
Little Troopers will also be individually posting out 200 free bears to any British Armed Forces child who has a parent deployed at Christmas. Eligible families can apply for a bear by 13th December. 200 names will be drawn at random and winners will be contacted.
Email: [email protected] with the following information -
Put this in the Subject Box - Christmas Smiles - Build-A-Bear Application
and
Your name and postal address (where you would like the bear to be sent); Service of serving parent(s) e.g. Royal Navy, British Army, RAF; Details of ship/base/unit of serving parent; Confirmation your child(ren) have a parent deployed overseas including Christmas Day 2021; Confirmation you have not received a bear in 2021 via your unit/base/ship.
Cinema screenings and panto tickets
On Saturday 11th December, Little Troopers has arranged five free cinema screenings of The Polar Express for forces families at select ODEON cinemas locations. The 450 free tickets sold out as soon as they were released, but the charity now has a waiting list for families who are keen to go and is encouraging anyone who has a ticket, but is no longer able to attend, to return their tickets so they can be released to other families. Visit this link for details.
For families in Oxford, Leicester and Sheffield the charity has pantomime tickets available, emails will be sent out to the mailing list on how to apply over the coming weeks.
Giveaways
To bring extra Christmas cheer, the charity will also be running weekly giveaways on our Facebook and Instagram pages throughout December. Keep an eye out for a chance to win some really great prizes every week!
Christmas extras
If that wasn’t enough, we also have 100 copies of ‘Evie’s Christmas Surprise’, a heart-warming story written by a real-life little trooper, eight-year-old Darcy Thorp, which has been professionally illustrated after winning the charity’s recent story competition. Lots of Christmas-themed Crafty Little Troopers sheets that families can download to keep them busy in the lead up to the big day and the team will also be sharing a link for families to watch a virtual pantomime of ‘Cinderella’, performed in 2020 by Playhouse Parties.
