Crown Prince Haakon (49) and Crown Princess Mette-Marit (49) spent Wednesday visiting various charities, as well as helping with Christmas preparations.
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The Crown Prince couple first traveled to the Church’s City Mission headquarters in central Oslo, where they received guidance from the Blue Cross, the Red Cross, Save the Children, Poor House, the Salvation Army and the Church’s City Mission. Then they went to the Salvation Army’s slum station at Rodeløkka in Oslo, where, together with other volunteers, they helped prepare this year’s Christmas aid.
Speaking to Dagbladet, the Crown Prince said volunteering in the run-up to Christmas was considered extremely important.
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– Christmas is a very beautiful time – a holiday – and many people look forward to Christmas, but we know that it can be a difficult time. Both because there is greater pressure on, say, finances, and because you may feel more out of place on a holiday like Christmas, than at other times of the year.
– That’s why it’s extremely important that there are organizations like the ones we visited today that do everything possible to make Christmas enjoyable for as many people as possible.
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Asked if the Crown Prince couple had any advice on how to please someone who dreads Christmas, Mette-Marit encouraged them to seek out the local community.
– You can make someone who dreads Christmas happy by contributing to some of the organizations we visited today, for example the Home for the Poor or the Red Cross, or you can sign up as a volunteer, deliver Christmas presents – there are many different ways to help on. I think the smartest thing is to connect with your local community to see how you can help locally. When you’re starting out as a local volunteer, I think it’s hard to just give up, she said, before Haakon chimed in:
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– You stay with you the rest of the year too, and that’s nice.
– And I think a lot of people are doing it now too. People are looking for places where they can contribute exactly the way they can best contribute, added the Crown Princess.
