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La­dy Ho­choy Home

At the La­dy Ho­choy Home, ad­min­is­tra­tive as­sis­tant, Lynette Nel­son, al­so said the chil­dren were in­vit­ed to var­i­ous Christ­mas func­tions dur­ing the sea­son."They at­tend so many func­tions and right now they are prepar­ing for our an­nu­al Christ­mas con­cert, which will be held at the St James Am­phithe­atre on De­cem­ber 7, so they are very busy."

She added that on Christ­mas day the chil­dren en­joyed a hearty break­fast with all the tra­di­tion­al Christ­mas food. "Some­times peo­ple would come to the home with break­fast, lunch and gifts for the chil­dren," said Nel­son. "Af­ter break­fast the chil­dren get to open their presents and they play with each oth­er and their toys. Then it's lunch and for the rest of the day we just keep the spir­it of Christ­mas alive with some car­olling."

Am­i­ca House For Girls

At the Am­i­ca House For Girls, Sr Jude Marie said the chil­dren were in­vit­ed to a num­ber of Christ­mas din­ners, func­tions and con­certs as well. "They ab­sorb the sea­son well," she re­vealed. "At Am­i­ca, we try to have that true fam­i­ly spir­it at all times, and for Christ­mas we place more em­pha­sis on this."We teach them about love and how to love each oth­er be­cause they are all na­tion­al­i­ties, and see­ing them play and en­joy the sea­son to­geth­er re­al­ly fills my heart."

Rain­bow Res­cue

Judy Wil­son, CEO of Rain­bow Res­cue, said lead­ing up to Christ­mas the chil­dren took part in dec­o­rat­ing the home, and paint­ed, if it was need­ed. "You know we cel­e­brate Christ­mas the tra­di­tion­al way just like how it would be if we were at our own homes. "The chil­dren get to at­tend many Christ­mas func­tions, din­ners and con­certs. They es­pe­cial­ly en­joy go­ing to the PM's Christ­mas par­ty and to the Pres­i­dent's House," she ex­plained. Wil­son added that on Christ­mas day the home had a fam­i­ly break­fast and lunch, and the chil­dren were al­lowed to help with the cook­ing and prepar­ing of the food (for lunch).

"We al­so let some of the chil­dren spend time with rel­a­tives if they (rel­a­tives) would have them for the day." Asked what was her Christ­mas wish for the chil­dren, Wil­son said: "I try to let them un­der­stand that they can­not change where they came from, but they can change where they are go­ing. "These chil­dren have had the ex­pe­ri­ence of aban­don­ment so ear­ly in their lives, my on­ly wish for them is that they won't go through their lives think­ing they would al­ways be aban­doned by some­one."