Loneliness is a natural human emotion and not an illness or medical condition. We are all, at some point in our lives, likely to experience feeling lonely.
For some, though, loneliness becomes a much more frequent experience and research shows a connection between significant loneliness and the risk of poor health conditions such as depression, coronary heart disease, stroke, dementia and premature death.
At Marmalade Trust, we use our Christmas Cheer project to reach out to those who might be experiencing significant loneliness, and who will be alone on Christmas Day, and start the process of re-generating social connection.
Marmalade Trust continue to be one of the organisations working to reduce feelings of loneliness on 25 December, every year. Our dedicated staff and team of volunteers work hard to bring social connection to individuals who would otherwise be alone for Christmas Day.
We recruit and carefully match volunteers with Christmas cheer project members and provide training and guidance to help ensure each volunteer is able to best support their project member on the day.
Ahead of Christmas Day, we arrange a house visit, taking a connection card and small gift made by local school children. We source and organise a gift box for each project member to receive on Christmas Day - for many the only gift they will receive.
On the day, our team of volunteers set out, collecting their matched project member from home and taking them to their Christmas Day venue. Some stay for lunch, facilitating lots of conversation at the table, others return after lunch to collect their project member and return them safely home.
For those project members unable to access a venue, another team of volunteers deliver gift boxes to their door, providing social connection at the doorstep.
The Christmas Cheer project costs a total of c. £52,000 and involves over 200 project members and volunteers on Christmas day.
Here's how Pat, 85, described her experience of being part of the Marmalade family for Christmas:
[My husband] used to love Christmas. When he was alive the house was filled with decorations at Christmas time. He was a big child at heart! He especially loved his Christmas lights. We would get lots of cards at Christmas time and have all the parties to go to. That’s what I really miss, being part of the community. You feel useless.
When I spent Christmas by myself it felt like everything was dead. You...go and pour out a drink but there’s no one there to make a toast with...You might as well not be there. You’re doing stuff but you’ve got no one to share it with. There was no company. You might as well go to bed and go to sleep. There’s no one to share happy moments with or anything else. And me being a proper chatterbox, I missed everything.
I went to my first Marmalade Christmas lunch last year. It was at a nice restaurant not far from me. I got picked up by a volunteer and driven there. The table had been laid out beautifully with all the name places and decorations. It was lovely to see...other older ladies there. I didn’t know any of them beforehand and I did feel a bit nervous going in but when we started talking, we all got on...and after the meal we had a bit of a sing-song. It felt wonderful to sit around a table again with other people for Christmas dinner.
Here's how Donna talked about her involvement in the Christmas Cheer project:
I lost my own father seven years ago and I’d always thought that I would never, ever see him on his own on Christmas Day. So this is my way of carrying on that wish I guess and making sure that others have company on Christmas Day who would otherwise be alone...It’s that instant sense of safety and security that they have when they see a familiar face on Christmas Day.
For me, Christmas has been very different since I lost my father. I always said I would do something different every year until I found what was special for me. For me that’s Marmalade. My Christmas isn’t about my family; it’s about making connections with others in the same special way.
Volunteering with Marmalade has completely changed my relationship with Christmas.
* Charities pay a small fee for our service. Find out how much it is and what we do for it.
