NAIS Pudong celebrates Christmas with holiday bazaar

Christmas was surely coming to town at Nord Anglia International School Shanghai, Pudong with their holiday bazaar, marking a long-standing school tradition of fun for students, families and teachers whilst celebrating together as part of the NAIS Pudong community.

The students were busy fundraising by running many very popular stalls selling items they had made including festive socks, sweaters and canvas frames, as well as mugs, postcards and bags featuring pictures that students had taken of popular Shanghai landmarks as part of a school photography project.

NAIS Pudong is a long-standing supporter of charities both close to home and further afield. Money raised on the night will go to Heart to Heart Shanghai and the non-governmental organization, Seeway Tanzania. Seeway works with NAIS Pudong and other Nord Anglia Education schools to install smokeless stoves, solar panels and goat sheds in communities in Arusha, northern Tanzania. Some of the students raising money on the night will have the chance to travel to Tanzania to see first-hand the changes their money and support can make as well as gaining an invaluable life experience.

Food stalls serving tasty and festive food drew long lines with a wide selection of tasty treats on offer, including curry, traditional turkey dinner, hamburgers, hotdogs, homemade cupcakes and cinnamon rolls. And those stalls selling deliciously warm mulled wine were certainly popular. As night fell, everyone gathered around waiting for the magnificent Christmas tree lighting, afterward Principal Lesley-Ann Wallace gave a welcome speech. This was followed by a flawless performance of “Silent Night Holy Night” by the choir of younger students, which was among the most anticipated highlight of the evening.

At the arts and crafts area, students of all ages used their imagination to make and decorate Christmas trees, Santa Clauses and other seasonal ornaments. Fun and exciting festive games gave the older students the chance to demonstrate leadership and collaboration helping the younger children to stack Christmas presents and pin the nose on Rudolph. Santa made an appearance in his grotto where family photos could be taken, a lovely reminder of a fantastic night.

The bazaar concluded with the drawing of the highly anticipated raffle where many people went home with festive baskets full of gifts. However, whether successful or not in the raffle everyone went home full of early festive spirit. Shanghai Daily was there to witness and participate in the event. Its booth had beautiful cards for students to use with traditional wax stamps, as well as free headbands. Visitors could also scan a QR code to follow the official WeChat account and learn about the newspaper and iDEALShanghai, its sub-brand promoting local culture and life.