Christmas ‘too dear’ for many Kiwi families
Trying to feed a family of six on $50 a week left the idea of celebrating Christmas unimaginable for Auckland’s Courtney Buchanan.
Repeated melanoma diagnoses paired with redundancy had left the North Shore mum on her knees financially.
She was one of the 17,000 New Zealanders who, in 2017, sought help from the Salvation Army in the lead-up to Christmas.
Buchanan said from early 2016 to mid-2017 her family scraped by, surviving on mince, stews, rice, tuna and sausages.
‘‘I thought I had let my kids down,’’ the 36-year-old said.
That is until the Salvation Army ‘‘angels’’ got involved.
‘‘It was really hard at first to ask for help, or feel like we needed help. I felt like: I’m not homeless, I don’t deserve to be helped.’’ The Salvation Army Christmas package was met with tears of joy, she said.
There were presents for each of her family members, including her four children, as well as regular food hampers, counselling and budgeting help.
‘‘I can’t even explain it in words – it’s pretty amazing.
‘‘They’ve helped me in every way,’’ Buchanan said.
A new survey has found that more than one in five Kiwis can’t afford to celebrate Christmas this year. The survey, commissioned by the Salvation Army, found that when asked to disagree or agree with the statement: ‘‘I can’t afford to celebrate the festive season’’, 23 per cent of respondents agreed.
Nearly 45 per cent of respondents agreed Christmas was a time of financial struggle, Major Pam Waugh, the Salvation Army’s head of welfare services, said. ‘‘When we see results like this from a survey of the general public, we fear for our most vulnerable people. Not those who have overspent on parties or presents but the ones who will come to us for food and shelter over the Christmas period,’’ she said.
The online survey received 1000 responses from people aged over 18 years across the country.
It comes as the Salvation Army launched its Christmas Appeal yesterday.
This year’s theme was All I want for Christmas, which Waugh said highlighted the stress and struggle the holiday season put some people under.
‘‘People who come to us for help are in a cycle of debt which takes time to break. This is a slow process and in the meantime we still have families struggling at a time that should be joyous.
‘‘Some of these cases were individuals but many were families. Nearly 28,000 children were among the families we helped last year.’’ She said she expected this year to be just as bad.
‘‘Ten per cent of people in the survey said they go without so their kids can celebrate Christmas. This is a time we should all be able to enjoy, yet we see people struggling to keep the lights on and put food on the table. We’re asking the people with enough to give to the less fortunate so we can all enjoy this time of year.’’