8-year-old releases enchanting new Christmas single for Compassion

Bognor Regis resident, 8-year-old Barty Hawkins, performs in (family-produced) Christmas Carol to raise funds for Compassion UK.

Every year, Simon and Sandra Hawkins and their children Poppy (13), Monty (11) and Barty (8), hand-make a Christmas card to send to their friends and family. Last year, for the first time, they also decided to record a song, “We thought it would be great to produce a song track too and have it support a charity. This year we decided our card would take the theme Christus Est Natus – Christ is born. The line came from one of Barty’s favourite carols,” explains Simon, Barty’s father.

The Hawkins family, wrote, produced and recorded Christus Est Natus all within their own home, earlier this year. They also produced a video featuring 8-year-old Barty singing the carol. “I find singing fun.” he explains, “Sometimes I can feel a bit nervous. When we filmed the video it was freezing and I was wearing my choir robe and my wellies!”

The family set up a Virgin Money Giving site and have put the song on iTunes, Spotify and Amazon with all proceeds going to Compassion UK’s Child Survival Programme.

“It’s poignant to give to children at Christmas – children are vulnerable in any society and the Compassion Child Survival Programme supports and protects the weakest within needy communities around the world. Having your own children opens your heart. You want the best for them, and you realise that there are children who don’t have the support they need to thrive.” explains Sandra.

Bekah Legg of Compassion UK said, “This song is beautiful. Barty’s voice is enchanting. The lyrics ‘love has a face’, not only reflect the heart of the Christmas story, but reflect the reality of child sponsorship; seeing a child living in poverty as not just a statistic but an individual with a name and a future.”

Last year the family’s song raised £1,600 for Compassion UK and they are hoping to top that amount with this year’s song, Christus Est Natus.

For more information, photographs and interviews contact Bekah Legg, rebekahL@compassionuk.org.