If your organisation uses Three Rings, you should by now have received a Christmas card from us. This year’s card depicted two of Three Rings’ developers – Dan, dressed as Santa, and Ruth, acting as a volunteer on a phone call – as Santa crept in to deliver presents to the helpline. It was taken in the office of Aberystwyth branch of Samaritans, and we’re very thankful that they let us decorate their office (well ahead of Christmas!) earlier this year in order to take the picture.
The picture from this year's Three Rings Christmas card.
Did you notice that the computer screen in the background shows a Three Rings rota?
I thought it would be interesting to share some of the pictures from “behind the scenes” during the making of this year’s card:
JTA decorating the branch.
Aberystwyth Samaritans aren’t a 24-hour branch, so we were able to arrange to visit while there wasn’t a shift running. Probably for the best: I think it might have been a distraction to the volunteers to be suddenly surrounded by tinsel in October.
Paul and Ruth finish wrapping "presents" for Santa to deliver.
The presents actually contain a board game and a stack of CDs.
Dan putting on his Santa costume.
Dan isn’t really quite so rotund: that’s a pillow stuffed up inside the costume. He spent most of the time complaining about how itchy the beard was and how he couldn’t breathe through it.
JTA digs through old Christmas cards.
The branch still had a supply of Christmas cards from previous years stored away, so we opened them up and pinned a few around the place: you can see a handful of them in the background of the final photograph. This was a convenient prop that we hadn’t thought about until the very last moment.
The Three Rings team take Three Rings very seriously, but we have a sense of fun, too. We experimented with a few other photographs for the card – Santa sneakily putting money into a collection tin, Santa turning to the camera with his finger to his lips, etc… but in the end our favourite was clear. We hope you enjoyed it, too, and we’d like to wish a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to every single one of you, and a special thank you to those volunteers who’ll be giving up their time over the holiday period to support people in need: thank you very much!