Come on, admit it, it gets to 10:30am on Christmas morning, the kids have opened all their presents, it’s too early for the Baileys and the turkey’s playing chicken with the oven. Instead of cracking open yet another selection box why not put those muscles to better work with a nice refreshing dip in the sea…
It would certainly give you a Christmas Day to remember and leave you feeling positively virtuous as you tuck in to the day’s feast you’ve got lined up for later on.
The Macmillan White Christmas Dip celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2017, encouraging plucky locals to brave Bournemouth’s sea water on December 25 to raise vital sponsorship for Macmillan Caring Locally in Christchurch at this generous (and crazy) time of year.
Register your interest for 2018 right now and start raising guilty donations from anyone who says they don’t want to join you or even hold your towel! In 2017 they aimed to raise £50,000 for this specialist palliative care unit. If everyone taking part pledges £50 they might just make this sum based on previous participation of around 1000 dippers.
The event is usually quite the spectacle, with Santas, elves, even pantomime horses braving the beach instead of the standard, boring Christmas bacon sarnie. For 2017 they wanted participants to get a group together and theme their team – whether a group of angels or more like a band of Where’s Wallys!
Participants congregate at Boscombe Pier at 9:45am, hit the water at 10:30 and most are out by 10:31! So, there you have it, prepare to be dipped or make sure to dip into your pocket and support this local charity to really get into the Christmas spirit.
