This Christmas, check out the Signworld Christmas Collection!

Signworld, one of our supporters, is best known for its excellent online BSL learning and teaching resources.

But Deaf directors Linda Day and Tessa Padden are passionately committed to producing materials that Deaf people can enjoy as much as hearing – especially D/deaf children.

They remember when they were girls, how little there was that was tailored specifically to Deaf kids. There were never any Deaf characters, either adult or children, in any of the Christmas annuals, TV programmes or films. Nor were there any Deaf themes that they could relate to.

So this year, they’ve started to do something about it. The Signworld Christmas Collection – now available online at only £4.99, offers:

• The 12 Days of Christmas – both the traditional version AND a special new Deaf version
• How to sign Christmas and New Year greetings
• A special Christmas Advent calendar in BSL
• A Christmas Alphabet – 26 things traditionally associated with Christmas
• 2 traditional rhymes – Jingle Bells and The Night Before Christmas
• 2 traditional stories – Scrooge and The Three Wise Men
• 2 new stories written specially for Signworld – The Deaf Twins Who Saw Father Christmas, and When Robin Redbreast Fell Out of His Tree
• Games and quizzes to test your BSL skills

All of these are presented in BSL by a team of four Deaf Santas – Linda, Tessa, Natalie Day and Nicholas Padden.

Signworld is especially pleased to feature the Deaf version of ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’; and the specially written short story ‘The Deaf Twins Who saw Father Christmas’. It means that D/deaf children can at last find characters they identify with in their Christmas stories.

Knowing how important literacy is for Deaf and hearing children alike, all the items have optional subtitles for parents who want their children to learn both languages equally well.

Signworld was delighted to share its Advent calendar with the NDCS’s online website for deaf children and young people, The Buzz, and all of the Advent Calendar videos can be seen on The Buzz’s Facebook page – appearing every day till Christmas.

So Happy Christmas – and if you want to see how to sign that in BSL, you know where to go!