As the festive season draws closer at Paisley YMCA and with our partnership with Barnardos UK, we helped to host a celebratory Christmas party for the Ukrainian friendship group this month! On the 13th December, we helped to set up a festive celebration for the Ukrainian families that visit our space every week. It was a great day of fun and glittery Christmas jumpers!
The adults brought many traditional Ukrainian festive dishes which filled the entire table! It was all delicious and a great festive dinner for everyone. There were also many cakes and sweets which had the young people running around plenty!
Christmas tunes and games of pass the parcel accompanied the massive meal.
And of course, it wouldn’t be a proper party without a visit from Santa! Each young person had a one-to-one chat with Santa about how good they’ve been this year (with varying answers!) and everyone received a party bag full of gifts kindly donated by Barnardos Welcome Ukraine Service. It was a lovely way to end what has been a great year working with this group.
We work closely every week with Barnardo’s Welcome Ukraine Service Project Worker Lorraine McCluckie who was the main organiser of the event helping the Ukrainian community in Renfrewshire, bringing them support and joy at this difficult time. We are thankful for her efforts and hope to continue working with her and the group into the New Year. She states:
“Barnardo’s Welcome Ukraine Service are immensely grateful to the YMCA Paisley team for their ongoing support to the Ukrainian community and will continue to work alongside them providing a safe and fun space for families.”
We always enjoy seeing our Ukrainian friends every week in our space and we wish them all a very happy Christmas and New Year!