Angel Tree Letters: Unlocking Hope this Advent Season
By Lorinne Kon
For the better part of my younger life, my siblings and I lived apart from our parents. Christmas was the only time we knew for sure we would see them. It was the best time of year and come December we looked forward to it with wide-eyed anticipation; the happy reunion, the de rigueur visit to the stores to pick out our gifts, the long drives along pitch black roads guided only by our car’s headlights as we gleefully belted out Christmas songs and, for the mischievous among us, when discipline took a back seat. Laughter, feasting and merriment permeated and punctuated the air in our home.
“No words can describe how much I’ve missed all of you, & no amount of words is (sic) enough to show how sorry I am. I hope you all will give me another chance to make it up for all the time (sic) I’ve missed. Please wait for my return. I Love All of You.”
It is all too easy to be swept up by the joyous festivities and our families’ togetherness during the Christmas season and presume the same to be so for others. The truth is, Christmas is a difficult time for many, and especially so for families impacted by incarceration. For inmates, spending Christmas behind bars can weigh heavily on their mental health and take an emotional toll on them. The physical confines and largely unchanged daily routines limit the avenues for inmates to effectively handle personal regrets, sober reminders of what they are missing at Christmas, and the sense of disengagement from their families and the outside world. They suppress their emotions and agitate more easily, leading to increased tension with cell mates, more conflicts and possibly disciplinary issues. For their families, the absence of their incarcerated loved ones and erstwhile familiar routines during the Advent season can amplify feelings of loneliness and anxiety. The constant reminders of Christmas throughout Singapore from the Orchard Road light up to HDB streets brightly and festively decorated with Christmas colours to social media awash with prompts of the season’s fashion and flavour exacerbate the sense of disconnect with their loved one in prison. For inmates and their families, Christmas is often a stark reminder of separation, isolation, and loss. A depressing time.
“Hi baby girl, here’s a Christmas card for you. I know you can’t read yet so you have to ask mummy to read for you. I just want you to know that Daddy love (sic) you very much and miss you very much. You must be good when daddy (sic) not around & listen to mummy ok. Merry Christmas my little princess. Daddy love (sic) you!”
The Christian season of Advent (from Latin adventus, meaning “coming” or “arrival”) looks back and celebrates Jesus’ first coming and looks forward to the hope of his second coming. Advent signifies the confident expectation of the return of Jesus, and also His glorious light in dark places, His faithfulness to His promises, and His presence and peace in difficult times. The Advent hope is not mere optimism or wishful thinking or an enigmatic future reality. It is the felt experience of living with hope in the in-between of Christ’s two comings, enabling believers to persevere with courage and empowering them to weather life’s challenges today. This hope, found in the person of Jesus Christ, is also embodied by people who carry His love, strength, and peace to everyone they meet.
The Angel Tree Project (ATP), the annual signature event under Seventy Times Seven (70x7), the IPC fund of Prison Fellowship Singapore, aims to instill the hope of restoring broken relationships with loved ones. Inmates are given the opportunity to pen letters containing messages seeking forgiveness and reconciliation with their family members. These handwritten letters, accompanied with grocery vouchers, are then personally delivered by teams of volunteers who fan across Singapore in December to bring these Christmas gifts to inmates’ families. In 2025, 1,116 letters of reconciliation were written by inmates, $120,000 grocery vouchers purchased, and over 1,000 volunteers from more than 50 churches and organizations were activated to bring Christmas cheer to 939 inmates’ families.
These volunteers are harbingers of the hope of release, reconciliation, and redemption that may seem distant in the restrictive confines of prison cells or in the absence of loved ones. They are bearers of hope in the challenging in-betweens of an incarcerated loved one’s departure from home to prison cell and their long-awaited return to family. Volunteers stand as Jesus’ representatives, proxies if you will, and visual reminders that the hope that is not yet is already here. They bring presents and their warm presence as they listen attentively, serve enthusiastically, and love embracingly to provide encouragement and hope in the inmates’ families dark and depressing time. Upon receiving the gifts, the families huddle in private with tears welling up in their eyes, at times, giving way to quiet sobbing. Others families are welcoming and chatty, yet others quiet and reflective. All are immensely grateful. During the especially difficult Advent season for inmates and their families, volunteers play an integral and invaluable role in bringing good tidings, personifying hope, and facilitating reconciliation and strengthening bonds in inmates’ families.
“My experience was both encouraging and heartwarming. The families we visited welcomed us warmly, sharing their enduring hope of their incarcerated loved ones and expression how our presence strengthened their resolve.”
If you would like to be an agent of hope to our beneficiaries through the Angel Tree Project, please drop us a line at pfs.org.sg/volunteer.