“Please ma’am, and if you want to go to a Christmas party, you can do it with us,” says Setiya. An older couple happily accepts the invitation. “That’s really nice! We have time, so we might just drop by.”
The asylum seekers’ center at the Planetbaan has been paying attention to the holidays for years, Debbie says. “We always have a great time around Christmas. And now with this promotion, in addition to having fun ourselves, we also want to invite people from Hoofddorp to come and have a look.” All 35 young residents between the ages of 4 and 12 contributed to the trees.
Still quite exciting
Meanwhile, a mother and daughter are surprised by Arta with a crafted Christmas tree. “Happy holidays,” he shouts, and then immediately starts enthusiastically working on the next tree. Supervisor Salam intervenes briefly, so that the pair actually know that they have received an invitation. “How great this is, especially since people always have such an opinion about migrants. We are going to see if we can come.”