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Operation Christmas Child...

Patti

Patti

CT4Val, Heather, Sabrina
Joined
May 21, 2010
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Last year wasn't a good Christmas for our family financially... but things have turned around in 2011 for us.
So, this year, I decided to work on 'giving' back and am doing Operation Christmas Child.
Just curious as to the experiences others have done doing this? is it something you do regularly? what do your children think about it?
 
I'm not familiar with this program. We do donate to Toys for Tots and our small group at our church "adopts" a family off the wish tree and have purchased gifts for an entire family in need. It's always anonymous, but I did go one year to deliver gifts and instead of making me feel all happy about making someone's Christmas nice, it made me wish I had spent every dime I had on that family. Made me really take a step back and see how much need there is in our own community! At least we did help one family have a little cheer! :)
 
I've never heard of that either, but we do toys for tots and a few other local programs (angel trees, etc). I make an advent calendar in December for my boys every year and each day for 24 days we do 1 good deed together, sometimes they are small (bringing in our eldery neighbors garbage cans or something like that) on the weekends we try and do bigger things (volunteer at the childrens home). Christmas has become so commercial it's really important to us that they learn it's all about giving, not receiving. Good for you Patti!
 
Our family does Operation Christmas Child almost every year! Our church participates in it and I always enjoy seeing the shoeboxes start piling up. We let our kids each pick out the toys for a child that is around their age so they get to be a big part in it.
 
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We have done Operation Christmas Child as well for the last couple of years. The boys love going to the store to help pick out what goes inside them. We haven't done this because ours get sent with a big group from their school, but there is a tracking thing that you can do to find out where your shoebox actually gets delivered to, which I think is pretty cool.

Our church does Toys for Tots and I haven't been able to be here for it, but we are going to be in town this year and I am really looking forward to it.

Kelly, I love that idea of doing something together for each day in December!
 
Sounds like a great charity. I'm right in the middle of gathering clothes and goods for Southern Christian Home located in our state. Each year the Boozefighters Motorcycle Club donates their time and resources to fulfilling the children's Christmas lists. This year, DH and I adopted 2 kids to shop for and its been great.

(Didn't mean to hi-jack your thread but it a heart-warming feeling when children get to enjoy the wonder of Christmas....no matter what organization helps them.)
 
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we've done it in the past, and the kids have loved it! they've also loved putting together food boxes to be delivered to area families. it's amazing how rewarding giving to others can be, even to the youngest of kids! i love that!
 
Patti---we have done the angel tree in the past and also Toys for Tots. this year we are financially struggling due to the governor of our state cutting my hubby's pay yet again. 3rd time in 2 years. he works with an Autistic teen, but our governor doesn't feel that so much money should be placed on caring for the Developmentally Disabled/Mentally Retarded. *hopping off my soapbox now b/c i could write a book about this woman!*
 
We've never done that, but each year each grade at the boys' school adopts one to two (I think one year 5th grade actually had 4...) families to raise money for food and presents for from inside the school. I really like that, because they know they are helping someone they know and go to school with... BUT they don't know who, only the person in charge actually knows who signs up and what goes to them, so it's not like the kids can be picked on or singled out.
 
We do a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child every year - the girls help make a list and buy everything. It's a good way to teach your kids to think of others.
 
Patti, it's so wonderful that you're doing something to give back and help others who are less fortunate! Way to go, girl!

Our church participates in Operation Christmas Child and we have done it for the last 5 years. My husband and I each do one for a boy and a girl and both of our boys fill a shoe box with toys, stickers, coloring books/crayons, of their choosing and then I add in basic toiletries to the boxes. We also let the boys draw a picture and include "artwork" in each of the boxes. :) It's a great, legitimate program that brings joy to kids all over the world. Have fun filling your boxes!
 
I had never heard of it either. We always donate to Toys for Tots. We haven't been able to donate much extra the past few years - but we do what we can, when we can. But always Toys for Tots, no matter what.
 
i'm a big fan of Operation Christmas Child. when i lived in Mexico, i worked with a feeding centre for kids, where some of the boxes were handed out. what a blessing those boxes were to those kids! i get a little teary eyed just thinking about them and can't adequately describe what a huge thing those little boxes were.

now, the church that i help out at (made up mostly of university students) participates each year. our goal this year it 700 boxes and i think we just might be able to do it! the boxes aren't that big and don't cost much to fill (you can get most things at the dollar store!), but make a huge impact. definitely lots of bang for your buck! :)
 
We did it for the first time last year and are doing it again this year. Our church gathers boxes and then takes them to a larger distribution center.
 
Our church is doing it this year. Kenzie has been enjoying pivking out toys to donate.
 
We've participated for the last 5 years. Each year we do 2 boxes, one for each of our boys, and we pick the same ages as our boys. So as our kids grow, so do the boys who receive our boxes. We talk about who will receive them, and what they might like, and just how much this little box will mean to them. It makes this ministry very personal for them. We also include a photo and a letter from us to the child receiving the box. And we make sure to include something Canadian, so they can have something tangible related to where this came from.

This year they have colouring boxes as well as the green + red ones, and we are having a blast decorating with all kinds of little doodles and colour colour colour!

I take a picture of our boxes each year. It kind of shows how my boys have grown because the choices they make for "their" Christmas Shoebox boys. It make giving a little more real to them. I've scrapped about this a couple times. Here's my most recent scrap (linked in case you want to read the journaling):

 
Every year, our family has a Christmas party and give out gifts to part of the lesser-advantaged community near our place. We roughly have 160-180 kids each year, ranging in age from 5 years old to 11 years old.

We buy the gifts and wrap them. We prepare the food and eat with them a day or so before Christmas. This way, it is giving back to the community during the holiday season. I make sure my kids are always part of the preparations and the actual activity just so they know that this is such an important part of the holiday season.

Also, we distribute Christmas food packages to about 300 families from the same community. This way, it's not just the kids who receive something, it's the adults, too!
 
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