Location: Mitake

Participants: 40 campers, 5 LITs, 10 care workers, 6 sponsors, 8 Mirai no Mori Staff

Date: December 16, 2017

Sponsors:

Program:

For the last Back to Nature of 2017, we were joined by our wonderful sponsors from KEEN, and we were all in high spirits for our Christmas Party themed activities. We started off with some festive themed English games, then split up into teams to prepare for the arrival of our special Knights in White Lycra Santas! We had a Decoration Team who made festive hats and decorated the space wonderfully, a Cookie Team who decorated delicious cookies for everyone to enjoy, and a Christmas Card Team who made creative and joyful cards for the Santas and our sponsors.

Once we finished up the preparations, it was time to welcome the Santas! The five Santas had cycled 70 km from Tokyo just to meet us! The campers were very excited to ask many questions and spend time with the Santas. The Santas ate lunch with us, then surprised everyone with presents! Everyone was very thankful and each person got to tell Santa what they worked hard at this year and what they are looking forward to next year. It was truly a magical experience!

After saying goodbye to the Santas, we went back inside to learn about the different ways Christmas is celebrated around the world, and enjoy some free time to spread the Christmas cheer. Everyone was even given the chance to experience the true meaning of Christmas and the joy of giving rather than just receiving, by picking out a gift to give someone who was unable to attend the party. When it was time to leave, we said “Merry Christmas” one last time and left with hearts full of Christmas spirit!

Thank you again to the Knights in White Lycra and KEEN for making this wonderful event possible! We wish everyone a happy holiday season and hope to see you in the new year!