What do you do to teach your kids about giving and compassion? Every Thanksgiving and Christmas we grab the list from church and head to the store to donate dinners for the poor. When I heard about Operation Christmas Child, I knew we had to jump on board and make a box or two for needy kids. I printed out the directions and headed to the store with my youngest to pick out toys. Once we got there we couldn’t choose between girl or boy so we decided to do both. Knowing that my daughter likes little things, it was so easy to find things to fit in a shoe box for a girl. The boy I had a little harder time with because it seems like everything is action figures or really expensive. I ended up spending around $25 on each box which isn’t bad.If you want, you can just create a box online for $30.
The kids had such a great time drawing pictures to put in the box. Monkey wanted to go get a stuffed animal or baby doll from her room to give to the little girl. I had to explain that they don’t want used toys. Buddy said to her “What if you didn’t get Christmas.” She said, “That’s ok, because we have lots of toys here.” They just wanted to do all they could for this little boy and girl to give them everything they could for Christmas.Monkey wanted to go out and buy her a Barbie, because “What if she wants a Barbie for Christmas?” I said that we couldn’t give them everything they want, but we could give them a little happiness.
We got both kids yo-yos, a deck of cards, a toothbrush and toothpaste, coloring book, crayons, and a magnetic doodle pad.The girl got some Hello Kitty socks and a Polly Pockets doll and the boy got a couple of cars. We had some Halloween playdoh that had never been opened so we threw a few of those in as well. I really hope the little boy and girl enjoys these boxes. The kids made a drawing and we put Christmas cards in from our family with our pictures on it and our address, because it says if you send your address, the child may write back. I hope so, because I think it would be great for the kids.
Our boxes are all set and waiting for our drop off date. There is actually a location about a mile from our house where we can drop off the boxes, so that works great.
How to pack a box:
Use an empty shoe box (standard size, please) or a small plastic container. You can wrap the box (lid separately), but wrapping is not required. Most importantly, pray for the child who will receive your gift.
Determine whether your gift will be for a boy or a girl, and the child’s age category: 2-4, 5-9, or 10-14. Print out the appropriate boy/girl label by downloading the artwork to the right. Mark the correct age category on the label, and tape the label to the top of your box.
Fill the box with a variety of gifts that will bring delight to a child. Use the gift ideas provided on the bottom of this page.
Please donate $7 or more for each shoe box you prepare to help cover shipping and other project costs. You can give online by using our “Follow Your Box Donation”option, or you can write a check to Samaritan’s Purse (note “OCC” on memo line) and place it in an envelope on top of the gift items inside your box. If you or your family are preparing more than one shoe box, please make one combined donation.
Place a rubber band around each closed shoe box and drop it off at the
collection center nearest you during our collection week, November 12-19, 2012.
For locations and hours of collection visit our Drop-Off Locations page where you can find the nearest place to take your shoe box by entering your ZIP Code or you can call 1-800-353-5949.
You can also send your shoe box gift to:
Samaritan’s Purse
Operation Christmas Child
801 Bamboo Road
Boone, NC 28607
This holiday season build a box with your family to teach kindness, compassion, and generosity.
BlogFrog will match the first 200 boxes that are built. Pledge your commitment below to build a box today on Facebook or Twitter!
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Operation Christmas Child. The opinions and text are all mine.
