Christmas comes to campus at De Montfort University

By Emily Barker

Christmas is definitely on campus this December at De Montfort University (DMU).

For the past two weeks, DMU’s Students’ Union (DSU) has been doing Christmassy activities to welcome its arrival on campus and spread the seasonal cheer.

Today (TuesDEC10), the SU is bringing its annual Christmas Fair to the Campus Centre in The Gateway.

The fair is running for just six hours, from 10am to 4pm and includes festive treats, Christmas stalls, food and gifts, as well as much more.

Aisha Ismail, 21, is the Union’s Student Opportunities and Engagement Executive and said: “We have been hosting the Christmas Fair for the past two years.

“This year, we have around 10 stalls and they are all local businesses from Leicester.

“Some have online shops, and some are shops in town, but we are helping to promote their businesses.”

Aisha continued: “The businesses pay a small fee to the DSU to have a stall, but all the money that they make on the day they get to keep for themselves and we’ve based it in the SU for this exact reason, as the SU is open to the public as well as the students here.”

Last year, the Students’ Union (SU) even included reindeer for people in the area to pet, but this year they have not returned.

During this week’s event, the Raise And Give (RAG) organisers are selling hot chocolate for the three charities that the students’ chose for the year, which are Leicester Samaritans, One Roof Leicester and Woodside Animal Shelter Leicester, with all profits being made going to the three charities.

Last week, the SU hosted an event called “Winter Wonderland”, which promoted sustainability at Christmas; everything used was recycled and bought from charity shops.

At this event, Aisha organised making decorations for a food shelter with no budget for Christmas, and wrote some cards for children with Cancer, which were addressed to “Someone Special”.