What do you do when Twitter deals you a winning hand? Get into the Christmas spirit I say.

As I look back on 2016, I count my blessings to have been supported by some marvelous people. Together, we’ve travelled down a road they knew where it would lead me before I even did. I paid dues, I got some. Time to pay it forward.

The background of this intro? A couple of weeks ago, I participated in a Twitter contest. Not in the hope of winning. In Dutch, we say you’re unlucky in the game when lucky in love. That and I thought the campaign was brilliant and I seldom pass on an opportunity to promote print. (sorry, my love J)

“Get into the Christmas mood – follow our account, RT our visual and you might just win.”

And win I did.

A 1,80m cardboard tree. An original take on a lasting Christmas decoration in your home. Cat can't cause too much damage, you can personalise the print with Christmas balls pictures of family members, no needles on the floor - not to mention a great piece of POS. Outstanding latex print technology, precision perfect cutting, printed by one of the most promising Belgian creative companies – 3Motion. All mine.

What to do with it? Pay it forward, of course. Time to put the 3 in Motion. (see what I did there?)

The school of my #5yo goes at great lengths every day to bring our multicultural community closer together. They invest, they care. And it works. I’m amazed at how close we all are – children, parents, school. So, when I saw how much effort they were putting into the school’s Christmas celebration to make it an interactive experience to bring people together, I knew what I had to do.

I donated the tree to the school. Surely they’d be able to enjoy it for far more years than I would. Not to mention I wanted to say thanks for the unceasing selfless efforts their teachers and even substitutes put into our children.

3Motion luckily loved the idea. Altruistically, they pushed their deadlines to make it happen in just 2 days’ time and fixed a broken-down lorry to make it to the church on time! They personalized the tree with the school’s logo and their delivery guy even helped us set it up in the church despite looming delivery deadlines. Now that’s service.

Again, my apologies to the ones who have been kept waiting. I’m not much of a church-goer myself, but I’ll put in a good word with the Man Above.

And it fitted perfectly into the nativity scene of the school’s Christmas play. The principal, teachers and most importantly, the kids absolutely loved it. Warms my heart to see everyone enjoyed it so much, the tree would have withered away in my living room.

Here’s to print – may it entertain many more generations to come. In cardboard or any other form.

Thank you for (y)our Christmas miracle, 3Motion. I’m sure we’ll enjoy this environmentally friendly Christmas memento for many years.

Have a wonderful Christmas time everyone. Best 2017 wishes from my family to yours!

Maya