The Refugee Ministry of the Hungarian Reformed Church Aid (HRCA) recently hosted two community events on December 14th and 17th to bring its clients together for Christmas. The events, held at the organization’s community center, were open to clients of the Refugee Ministry and featured various activities, from building gingerbread houses to crafting decorations.
On December 14th, clients from the Refugee Ministry’s Base Integration and Ukraine Response programs were invited to the community center to gather for the first Christmas community event. This event included a craft section for building Christmas decorations and gingerbread houses. In addition to the crafts, the older kids in attendance had the opportunity to participate in a short drama workshop activity aimed at community building. As a special treat for the younger attendees, the Refugee Ministry hosted a small performance from a children’s entertainer.
The December 17th Christmas event, was also open to Base Integration and Ukraine Response program clients and featured similar activities for clients to participate in. The event began with a drama performance the children designed and practiced throughout their Drama Club sessions in the weeks leading up to the community event. The drama performance included scenes from well-known fairy tails, such as Little Red Riding Hood, in English and Hungarian. Following the drama performance, attendees were invited to float around to the activity stations among the various rooms of the community center.
Attendees could gather in the kitchen for Christmas cakes, snacks, scones, tea, coffee, and conversation. At the same time, one room was dedicated as an “art together” space, where attendees could leave messages on a gratitude wall and a large paper surface for a collective Christmas creation, including various drawings, glitter, stickers, paints, and other crafts. In addition to the “art together” space, participants could create their own Christmas crafts together, including Christmas ornaments and decorations, elves, and snowmen.
The December 17th event also included a group activity. Attendees participated in a community game similar to Bingo. Each guest received a sheet with prompts outlining traits they must seek out in a fellow attendee, for example, “find someone who is left-handed” or “find someone with a nice smile,” and guests would meet one another and ask each other for signatures to the prompts. This activity was particularly enjoyable as it provided a creative and entertaining forum for clients from the Base Integration and the Ukraine Response programs, children and adults alike, to interact and get to know one another. As the game wound down, clients wrapped up their final signatures, returned to their crafts, began intense foosball games, and enjoyed the company of their fellow community members before the break of the holidays.