Polly Arrowsmith has gifted thousands of Christmas presents to “forgotten” adults over the last 12 years. We find out more...
WORDS: DANIELLA THEIS
From when Polly Arrowsmith was little, Christmas was always a big event in her family.
“My mum is from Lapland and half Sámi [an indigenous Arctic culture resident in parts of Finland, including Lapland],” the 56-year-old said.
“Christmas has always been such a huge thing in our family. My mum was spending her life in the UK, and a big thing for her was that Christmas was a slice of home. It meant so much to her.”
However, one Christmas, when Polly was about seven, her and her sister were separated from the rest of her family and sent to stay with friends after her mum was hospitalised in Finland.
“My mum had a serious car crash that shattered her wrist and she had to stay in Finland. She was away for about nine months, so that Christmas she missed.”
As a result, Polly’s father made the decision that his girls should have Christmas somewhere else, after family friends offered to help out.
“They were lovely to us,” Polly says. “They couldn’t have been nicer if they tried, but we just felt like we were gatecrashing someone else’s Christmas.
“There were piles of presents for their kids. I have never seen so many gifts. They were all amazing.
“My mum sent a box of Christmas presents – and posting was extraordinary expensive in the ’70s – but it never arrived in time. They didn’t come till January.
“So, all we had was a Milk Chocolate Tray. As a child it felt excruciating. It just felt like we were the pity invite.
“They had a lovely dog, a Basset Hound, and he found both our Milk Trays and ate the lot. We were gutted. As an adult, you’d laugh about it, but as a child you can’t. It seems so serious.”
The event would stick with Polly for the rest of her life.
“Christmas there ➙
has so much expectation that everything will be perfect,” she says.
“I realised very young that that isn’t always the case for everyone.”
It would be the memory of that Christmas that would decades later lead her to start spreading Christmas joy to others.
Polly, who lives in London, says she has always tried to be generous at Christmas by donating to foodbanks, for example, and over a decade ago decided to ramp things up even more.
“One Christmas someone I knew was organising a Christ
