Jan Jagran Sangathan organized Christmas and New Year Celebrations with children on 25 December at Children’s Park, Sector 33. Children were excited to go to a new place beautifully developed with swings, amphitheatre and ground for playing. We were about 40 children and adults. Dressed in colours of red, white and blue, the children looked super excited on this sunny cold afternoon.
JJS team included Madhu Mittal, Manju Gupta, Sonu Rathore, Shailja Rana and her mother Sudesh Rana, Mrs Gupta’s daughter Poornima and joined by Indrani Mani and Suman Singh.
Creativity at its Best – Children made caps with red and white paper, and decorated with cotton as snow; made Santa Claus and many beautiful props. They also got handmade gifts to exchange. The message was of giving and sharing as they did not know who will get their gift and what will they receive. This will help them community service and how we need to think beyond oneself.
Santa with GIFTS – Sonu Rathore dressed in red coat and red white cap with Santa goggles and snowman hair band, became Santa for children. All children clapped in joy! Santa distributed chocolates, sang Carols: Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Santa Claus is coming to town. Children formed a circle and danced to Christmas and Bollywood songs.
She brought home-made delicious eggless chocolate cake; it was cut by Indrani Mani who celebrated her birthday with us. Ms. Shailja organized mind fun games. The game of ‘Har Har Bum Bum’ was a big hit with children. Manju Gupta played passing the parcel and children performed to various Bollywood numbers.
Tulsi Diwas – Shailja Rana asked quiz questions like whose birthday we celebrate on 25 December. Children answered enthusiastically, our former PM Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. She explained the benefits of Tulsi and how it helps us as antioxidant, builds immunity, helps in diabetes control, hypertension, cold, cough and many other diseases. We started celebrating 25 December as Tulsi Diwas since 2014.
Gits and Delicious Food – Ms. Suman and Ms. Indrani brought stationery gift packs and distributed to all children. Madhu Mittal gave away the prizes to the winners for the painting competition, Rangoli competition.
Now it was party time. Ms. Suman and Ms. Indrani brought hot samosas, chutney, sweets and seasons’ fruit guava. We used our own crockery from Bartan Bhandar Bank.
We played songs and everyone danced. Each one of us became child that moment and enjoyed beautiful day. Children gave gifts to the teachers and organizers of Jan Jagran Sangathan and Inner Wheel. The handcrafted gift I received is so valuable to me that I have kept it on my work table.
by Sonu Rathore, Shailja Rana and Manju Gupta (Sector 50)
