Many thanks to all who helped to make the BBCA Christmas Reception 2023 on the evening of Monday 11 December such a glittering and roaring success. The sparkling event took place at the British Residence in central Brussels and was hosted by Matthew Bunny, Head of Political and Public Diplomacy at the Embassy (pictured below).

As ever on this annual Christmas event it was really great to see so many of our community celebrating together. And, also as usual, the event was sold out helping to achieve our twin goals of bringing the British Community together and raising money for a very good cause!

During the evening a raffle was held with some great prizes, including Pommery Champagne, Belgian beer, theatre tickets and a hamper from Stonemanor, amongst many others, with all proceeds to be donated to the excellent and vital work of the Community Kitchen based at the Holy Trinity church in Brussels. Through the raffle €1 600 was raised to support the valuable work of this charity that supplies some 5 000 meals a week to homeless and vulnerable people. Project director Gayl Russell, pictured above, described the work of the charity at the event.

In addition, the evening saw our annual donations to BBCA associated charities. This year the Community Help Service (CHS) and the British Charitable Fund both received €1 400 and the Brussels branch of the Royal British Legion received € 200. These donations are in addition to the €1 500 raised for the World Wide Fund for Nature Belgium during our Coronation event with Stonemanor in May. In total during 2023 the BBCA will have donated over €6 000 to charitable causes.

More pictures from the Christmas event can be viewed here. If you would like to share your pictures of the event, please send them in and we will upload them to this album

On behalf of the BBCA team of volunteers I wish you all a very fine festive season and hope to see you all again in the New Year. Keep an eye on our website as we aim to be organising more community events during 2024. In particular we will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the formal (re)founding of the BBCA as an absl in 1974.