If you have a lot, you can also donate. At least that’s how movie star Tina Ruland (56, “Manta, Manta”) sees it.
While most families prepare for the big unpacking and eating on Christmas Eve, the actress says to BILD: “I reject this madness for presents. It’s just moving money back and forth.” The Christmas tree at her home also looks different. “I don’t want a fir tree to be felled for my living room. I think that’s terrible.”
Actress Tina Ruland in front of her “alternative, reusable Christmas tree”
Instead of gluttony and gifts, something else is important for the mother of two: “Values such as charity and care, which Christmas originally stood for.” That’s why Christmas Eve is a little different for the Ruland family.
Tina to BILD: “For years we have set ourselves the goal of doing something for the people around us on Christmas Eve, or for the place where we are, instead of consuming.”
And since the family has always traveled a lot, that means: “For example, we cleaned beaches or waited on the 24th in the Bahnhofsmission at Bahnhof Zoo in Berlin.”
That will also be the case this year.
Ruland: “Near where we live there is a shelter where homeless people spend the night. Last year we baked cookies for them, cooked food and brought everything to them,” explains the Berliner. “Also this year we will cook or bake on Christmas Eve. What exactly, we’ll decide at short notice. But we definitely go there and give people a little bit of ourselves.”
What do your sons (18 and 12) think of that? “My boys think it’s good,” says Tina Ruland. “I’ve always thought it was important to convey to them, ‘Let’s do something for other people at Christmas.'”
Tina Ruland (here with Til Schweiger) became a star in 1991 with “Manta, Manta”. Part two will be in cinemas in 2023
