English schoolgirl Gracie McNulty’s dad died in an accident during the summer and this was going to the families first Christmas without him.
Abandoning the usual family festivities, Gracie along with her mother and three siblings, served turkey with all the trimmings to 50 homeless people yesterday.
The young girl’s father Craig, 38, did regular charity work and had served breakfast to the homeless on Stephen’s Day in the past and had promised to open the family-run cafe Grilled and Filtered on Christmas Day this year.
The young father of four’s charitable ways obviously had an influence on his family as his youngest daughter wanted to spend her Christmas holidays helping those less fortunate.
Gracie’s mother Sharon McNulty told the Daily Mail: “After he died Gracie said to me ‘I don’t want us to have Christmas at home this year, I want to do what daddy wanted and open the cafe on Christmas Day.’ It wouldn’t feel right to celebrate so we’re serving Christmas dinner to people who don’t have a home to go to. We’re all thinking of Craig. It’s all in his honour and he would be so happy with what we are doing,”
“It’s been absolutely fantastic, just to see their faces when they walked in. We’ve bought everybody thermal gloves, thermal scarves, and thermal socks and have also made sandwiches for them to take away,” she added.
The family inlcuding Gracie’s older sister and two brothers served turkey dinners for three hours between 11.30am and 2.30pm and gave tickets for the Christmas dinner to local homeless charities.
Gracie said of the experience: “It’s been the best Christmas ever. I was just at school feeling sad about my dad so decided I wanted to do something to make him proud and this felt like the perfect thing.”
