382 older residents enjoy Christmas Day together

At H&F Giving, we believe that no one should feel alone during the festive season. That’s why on December 25th, with our friends at Hammersmith & Fulham Council, we brought together 382 older and isolated residents of Hammersmith and Fulham for a heart-warming Christmas Day celebration filled with joy, connection and community spirit.

Our guests, who otherwise would have been on their own, enjoyed a delicious Christmas lunch with all the trimmings. Christmas crackers were pulled, bad jokes were told and there was some incredible dancing. All our older neighbours got a gift bag to take home and transport was provided for those that needed it. 90 volunteers gave their time on the day and helped pack the goody bags ensuring a fun filled day for all.

Our guests had a brilliant day, with one resident from Sycamore House, an alms-house run by Hammersmith United Charities (HUC) for low-income older residents, explaining how much H&F’s Big Christmas Day Lunch means to them: “The highlight of my year when the community comes together to give everyone a day to remember and it means so much to me and to so many! I have such huge admiration to the organisers and volunteers who take time out from their Christmas Day to give us folk a day to remember and I thank everyone involved so much for the kindness that you show us each and every year!”

Louise Wilson, Executive Director at H&G Giving, said: “This really is a wonderful event, to see almost 400 of our neighbours laughing, enjoying themselves and truly celebrating Christmas is what it’s all about. I know for a fact that without this event, our guests would spend the day alone and that’s just not Christmas. This is what community is all about – coming together to celebrate the good and the joy. But we couldn’t have done it alone. We are so grateful for all the donations that made this special event happen. We are also incredibly grateful to our sponsors whose generosity made this all possible.”

Your support made this happen – thank you.

In total, with a generous contribution from Hammersmith & Fulham Council, our community raised over £70,000 together to ensure this incredible event happened. Any excess funds raised will go towards engagement activities for older and vulnerable residents in the borough throughout 2025.

Hundreds of local people contributed to the lunch appeal by making donations via our crowdfunding campaign on our website, via bank transfer and at local events – raising £15,000 together.

Local businesses and foundations made invaluable contributions totalling over £40,000 – an incredible achievement.

A huge thank you to The Hurlingham Club Foundation for being our headline supporter this year. Their support helped drive local generosity and they also hosted a lovely soft-launch of our Christmas Campaign in the summer that welcomed many of our older neighbours to their grounds for a talk from their head gardener.

We would also like to thank the host of other key sponsors, donors and supporters who came together to ensure hundreds of our older neighbours in Hammersmith & Fulham were not alone:

The Calleva Foundation
Dr Edwards and Bishop King’s Fulham Charity
Olympia: who sponsored the entertainment including another great performance from Vivid Jazz who got everyone up for a post-dinner dance
Earls Court Development Company: who sponsored our goody bags for a second year so our older residents had an extra special gift to take home this Christmas.
Julia Rausing Trust
Friends of Brook Green: who sponsored a table of our older residents to have lunch together
Hammersmith BID
Shoots & Leaves
Blueprint Partners: whose fantastic team made our Christmas promo videos pro bono
Novotel London West: who were incredible hosts again this year and sponsored the turkeys

We also want to take this opportunity to thank H&F Giving’s core funders which this year include City Bridge Foundation, NEC Software Solutions and West London Chamber of Commerce, along with our founding partners, DEBK and HUC. Their unrestricted support is integral in enabling us to deliver impactful projects such as our Christmas Campaign.

A huge thank you again to everyone who volunteered or donated to make this event happen, as well as the Events Team at Hammersmith & Fulham Council for all their hard work in making the day such a success. Because of the generosity of our local community, 382 residents weren’t alone this Christmas.

Want to get involved in the Big Christmas Lunch 2025?

If you or your business would like to sponsor or get involved in this year’s event, please reach out to us at [email protected]. We look forward to seeing you there!

Find all photos here.