Christmas Fundraiser 2025
Help us make Christmas 2025 a warm, joy-filled celebration for every child and staff member at The Good Shepherd Agricultural Mission. Your gift will help provide special meals, fireworks, bonfires and upgraded goodie bags so our big Mission family can truly relax, celebrate and enjoy being together.
CHRISTMAS MAGIC AT THE FARM
It’s that time of year again at The Good Shepherd Agricultural Mission in Banbasa, North India—time for decorations, fireworks, bonfires, cake, and a whole lot of laughter. Christmas is when our big Mission family (around 100–150 children, staff, “old farm kids,” and guests) finally exhales after a long year of study, work, and service. This year, sponsors are helping provide individual gifts for our children, while this fundraiser will make everything around those presents possible: special meals, upgraded goodie bags, fireworks, marshmallows by the fire, and the simple joy of being together. Our goal is to raise USD $3,000 to cover the Christmas celebrations for everyone on the farm.
THE ELF-SIZED PROBLEM WITH A GIANT FAMILY
Hosting Christmas for a large family like ours is pure joy—but it is also logistically and financially intense. There are multiple special meals to prepare, decorations to hang, bonfires and fireworks to organise, and enough treats, chai, coffee, and biscuits to keep spirits high in the winter cold. In past years we have tried to buy individual gifts for nearly everyone on site—children, staff, volunteers, and visitors—which was not only expensive, but also a recipe for stress and the occasional missed person or misplaced present. After a big year of hard work at the Mission and Maxton Strong School, we want Christmas to be a time of peace and celebration, not a scramble to make the budget stretch.
HOW WE WRAP THE WONDER
In 2025 we’re trying a new, simpler and more sustainable approach. Our children’s sponsors are being invited to contribute towards a special gift (around $50–$100) for their child, and our team will do the shopping on their behalf. Where a sponsor can’t give, we’ll use general donations to quietly fill the gap—no child will miss out.
This GlobalGiving fundraiser will cover everything that brings Christmas to life for the whole community:
-
Special Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals, cake, snacks, chai, coffee, and biscuits
-
Fireworks, bonfires, and marshmallows for long winter evenings together
-
Two kinds of “souped-up” goodie bags—one for kids and one for adults—filled with treats, hats, toiletries, and small practical gifts
-
Extra costs around our on-farm celebrations, games, and gatherings across the holiday period
MAKING THE MERRY MORE IMPACTFUL
At the school, we’re also hosting a nativity play, fun activities for students, and an inter-school dance competition with 26 schools already signed up—but the school will cover those costs itself. This fundraiser focuses on making Christmas at the Farm itself warm, joyful, and welcoming for everyone who calls it home.
If we reach our $3,000 goal, we’ll cover the core Christmas celebrations. A $500 stretch goal will allow us to add heaters to our youngest students’ classrooms, making those cold winter mornings much more comfortable. A further $500 stretch goal will let us bless our teachers with a few much-needed items: a microwave, water cooler, and sanitary incinerator for the staff bathroom—simple gifts that will serve them all year long.
MAKING THE MERRY MORE IMPACTFUL
At the school, we’re also hosting a nativity play, fun activities for students, and an inter-school dance competition with 26 schools already signed up—but the school will cover those costs itself. This fundraiser focuses on making Christmas at the Farm itself warm, joyful, and welcoming for everyone who calls it home.
If we reach our $3,000 goal, we’ll cover the core Christmas celebrations. A $500 stretch goal will allow us to add heaters to our youngest students’ classrooms, making those cold winter mornings much more comfortable. A further $500 stretch goal will let us bless our teachers with a few much-needed items: a microwave, water cooler, and sanitary incinerator for the staff bathroom—simple gifts that will serve them all year long.
MEMORIES THAT GLOW AFTER THE LIGHTS GO OUT
For our children, Christmas is about much more than what’s inside a box—it is about memories. Late-night carols and crackling bonfires, fireworks over the fields, marshmallows and cake, shared jokes at the chai table, and the feeling of belonging to a big, slightly chaotic, but deeply loving family. Many of our kids come from hard backgrounds; these days of laughter, play, and being surrounded by people who know their names help rewrite the story of what “family” can mean.
Years from now, we hope they won’t just remember the toys they opened, but the sound of everyone counting down to midnight, the warmth of a shared meal, and the sense of being safe, seen, and celebrated. By giving to this project, you help create those memories—moments of joy and togetherness that stay with them long after the decorations are packed away. With your help, we’ll make Christmas 2025 a time of rest, gratitude, and joy for every member of our Mission family.