25th of December, a day we as a society build up to for the whole year. While we pull our crackers, open our presents and dine for our Christmas dinner, maybe in our city, town or even our own road someone’s there. Alone, cold and with no hope in the world.

London: named the world’s best holiday destination this year. We were the proud host of the ‘greatest show on Earth’ and have bewitched the world with our Royal family. However, the new Mecca for world is home to half of the country’s rough sleepers, with an estimated 3,000 sleeping in the city throughout the year. My question is how can such a richly cultured and fairly economically stable city have such a large homeless rate?

Yes, perhaps some may say it’s their own fault with 47% of the older homeless population being alcohol dependent. They have a notoriously bad reputation. But what about the other 53% of homeless people? Imagine having nowhere to call home, through lack of money or something much more sinister than that. Possibly because of domestic violence, sexual abuse or the feeling of no other option. That they would rather freeze every night on the street than live in fear. A fact that we as a society often forget.

The festive season now seems to be about who's getting the latest Apple product or the nicest designer clothes. While we’re waiting for Father Christmas to fill our stockings, they’re worrying about how to fill their stomachs. But who thinks about these people? Christmas time is the time for giving yet the idea of a ‘gift’ is becoming distorted. As while asking an eight-year old girl what she wanted for Christmas she simply listed the most recent technology and gadgets with the prices exceeding £150. Gifts are materialistic and very much you ‘give to receive’.  Every aspect of Christmas has a price tag. Spending a ludicrous amount of money on lavish gifts and big parties all revolving around one day. Finding we gradually forget the true meaning of Christmas.

However, not forgetting the good old Christmas songs, like: White Christmas, All I want for Christmas is you and Feed the world by Band Aid. A song that focuses on world hunger and poverty, quoting ‘there won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas time, the greatest gift they’ll get this year is life’. The charity song that raised large amounts of money, focusing on fighting poverty all over the world. But what it sadly seems to forget is the absolute poverty in Britain. The men and women we walk past while traipsing through London; not shedding a single sense of remorse as they stand cold and alone. Judging a book by its cover and labelling our fellow countrymen and due to this label it is 35 times more likely for a homeless person to commit suicide. But also shockingly the average age of a death for rough sleeper is around 40-42 years old. Compared to national average being between 78-82 years old, not what you would expect from a first world country.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t enjoy the festive season: but this Christmas try to give thought for others not as fortunate as ourselves. Or as Band Aid would also say, ‘we are a world of plenty; we can spread a smile of joy’. Spread the joy this Christmas, as we may not be able to feed the world at the moment but we may be able to start by feeding our city!