'Tis the season of goodwill. While Christmas is the time to spend with your loved ones, it's also the time to think about others and those less fortunate. Stars from the Kardashians to Princess Charlene of Monaco step out in droves during the festive period, showing their support for causes close to their hearts.
Make like the stars and find a charity appeal you'd like to get involved in...
Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity
This year HELLO! has teamed up with Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, who care for hundreds of youngsters all year round. Our favourite celebrities, including Peter Andre, have got involved with the campaign, and each day from now until 24 December, we'll be unveiling one star who is supporting our worthy cause.
Over the Christmas period, some young patients will have to stay in hospital but with your support, we can keep families together. The money you donate will help fund family accommodation so mums, dads, brothers and sisters can stay close by, or help fund the creation of bigger rooms in new hospital wards so parents of the most seriously ill children can stay by their bedside 24 hours a day.
Make a donation to GOSH CC online, or by texting FIVE to 70111. Texts cost £5 plus your standard network rate. Please ask the bill payer's permission. Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity will receive 100% of your gift.
© Photo: HELLO!Christmas Jumper Day
This is a fun and easy way to get into the Christmas giving spirit! Each year thousands of people – including celebrities Sophie Ellis Bextor, Jess Wright and Kate Garraway – don their most hilarious Christmas woollies in aid of Save the Children. On Friday 16 December, get a group together and dress up in your festive knitwear. Everyone will be doing it – you'd be silly to miss out! Donate £2 to the charity or go one step further and organise a fundraiser, from a school bake sale to a sponsored fun run. Your money helps Save the Children bring essentials like healthcare, education, protection and food to the millions of children around the world who are missing out on the most basic support.
Crisis
The Kardashian-Jenner clan often show their support for the less privileged by volunteering at soup kitchens over Christmas and Thanksgiving. If you want to don an apron and help give out food, register with Crisis, the national charity for homeless people. Crisis depends on its volunteers to dish out their traditional Christmas dinner, as well as the Boxing Day curry, to hundreds of homeless guests. If you're not suited to the kitchen, the charity needs helpers with specialist skills such as dentists, hairdressers, lorry drivers and performers, as well as a general army of volunteers ready to muck in! For those who can't give their time but still want to help the homeless, you can donate £22.32, the price for a homeless person to have a place at the Christmas dinner.
Guide Dogs
If like us you're envious of Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield who have their own guide dog puppy Luna at This Morning, then this campaign is for you! Guide Dogs are calling the public to sponsor three adorable puppies, Lexi, Zac and Una, this Christmas. From just £1 a week, you'll be able to follow a guide dog puppy in training from a six-week bundle of fur right up to when they're partnered with a person who is blind or partially sighted. Sponsor by 18 December to receive your Christmas pack and get regular pup updates and photos, a calendar, a fridge magnet and a personalised certificate.
Christmas Tree Project 2016
Not everyone will be spoilt with Christmas presents this year. If you'd like to give a gift to a child or teenager who is less fortunate, consider the Metropolitan Police's Christmas Tree Project, which is open to people living in London. Simply sign up online and you'll be allocated an anonymous person you can buy a present for – suggested maximum is £20 – and then drop your gift off at your local police station. Last year the Metropolitan Police received over 11,000 presents – let's see if we can do better! Alternatively, you can donate on their JustGiving page if you miss the Friday 9 December deadline for presents.
Smile Train
Some people are impossible to buy for, so why not consider a charity donation instead of a present? Smile Train, the charity that helps children in need of cleft surgery, gives youngsters the gift of a smile. Children with a cleft smile struggle with the basic abilities that most of us take for granted, such as speaking, eating and sometimes even breathing. For as little as £10 or £20, you can help provide the vital medical supplies that are needed in cleft surgery.
