This festive season, there’s a way for people to help transform the lives of children and young people in the UK and connect with communities in the developing world – whilst sharing the key messages of Christian faith.
Churches, schools and groups are invited to put their faith into action by making this year’s Christingle a fair trade one, with a message of trade justice.
This year Traidcraft has collaborated with The Children’s Society to raise vital funds to support vulnerable children and young people across the UK, and vulnerable communities in the developing world, through the much loved Christingle candlelit celebration.
For more information on how the Children's Society protect the childhood of all children and young people throughout the UK, click here.
The real message of Christmas to your community
Christingle celebrations may include songs, prayers and performances. The main element that is universal to all Christingle celebrations is the lighting of Christingle candles:
• The orange – represents the world
• The red ribbon – indicates the love and blood of Christ
• The dried fruits and sweets – symbols of God’s creations
• The lit candle – symbolises Jesus, the light of the world
But Christingle has always meant more than oranges, candles and jelly tots, and a fair trade Christingle is a unique celebration because of the message of hope and justice it brings across the developing world.
A Fairtrade Christingle
So why not make your Christingle a fair trade one? At Traidcraft we have plenty of Fairtrade sweets and dried fruits to decorate your Christingle orange to symbolise God’s creation, while our chocolate buttons and beanies tubes make great collecton boxes (after the contents have been enjoyed!).
Traidcraft have also worked with Y-Development - an organization created by YMCA Thailand that works with many artisan groups in the north of Thailand - to provide a hand-made fair trade red cotton ‘friendship’ band, which can be tied around the Christingle orange to symbolise the love and blood of Christ for the service and then later worn on the wrist as a reminder of the connection with vulnerable communities across the world.
We've been inundated with requests for these bands and unfortunately we’ve now sold out. We’ll order more for next year!
However you can still order our sweets, dried fruits and tubes by following the links below.
Remember, each time you decorate your Christingle with Fairtrade sweets and fruits you are providing fair wages and conditions for producers while giving you the unique opportunity to make a difference – to change the world for the better.
