Every Christmas since our daughter has been born we’ve made a shoe box for Operation Christmas Child for a little girl her age. Last year she had fun shopping but didn’t really understand what was going on.
(Side note, brother already has more hair than she did at 1 year 9 months)
This year at almost 3 she was way more involved and we added a box for a little boy. We talked about the purpose of the boxes and went on to Operation Christmas Child’s website and looked at pictures and found out what types of things we could put in the boxes and then headed out to go shopping. Our daughter ran from one thing to the next in the store, “Oh, the little girl would like this!” “Can we get this for the little boy?”
Arriving back home we had our daughter get the two boxes (we like plastic boxes instead of shoe boxes) and load everything into the right one.
Brother even got in on some of the action.
For the last step I had our daughter get out her coloring box and paper and draw pictures to put in the box. We’ll finish them off by writing a note and including a picture if I manage to get any printed this week.
This is a fun tradition that helps keep the perspective on giving instead of getting during the holiday season. Next year I’m going to plan ahead a little better and have our daughter do some little jobs around the house to earn money to purchase some of the supplies with. It will allow her to have even more ownership and hopefully make more of an impact.
It’s not too late for you to join in on the fun! Collection week goes through the 25th! Check out the Samaritan’s Purse website for all the details and to find a drop off location near you.
We just bought our goodies today for the shoeboxes. What a fun and wonderful opportunity to teach our children that it is “more blessed to give than to receive” especially while shopping 🙂
Beautiful children with a wonderful mama 🙂
It is a wonderful opportunity. Love projects that the whole family can be involved in. Yeah, she talked about wanting things for herself a couple times at the beginning in the store but after we reminded her what we were doing she never asked again.
Aww, thanks for you sweet words. You are a wonderful mama yourself!
So fun! And such a great lesson for the kids as they grow. We turned our boxes in this past Sunday. My girls love packing our OCC boxes each year.
You guys were on top of it! I hope to plan ahead a little more next year. It is such a great lesson. I hope that it’s something that our kids will look forward to doing every year.
Wow, I absolutely love this! I’ve always known of organizations like this but haven’t thought about it since I had my own kids. I would love for my kids to do something like this, thanks so much for sharing.
By the way, it looks like all of our kiddos are around the same age. My oldest turns 3 in Feb and my youngest turns 1 at the end of January 🙂
It was so much fun. I was impressed at how well our daughter did and only asked for something at the beginning of our shopping trip and after we reminded her what we were doing, she didn’t ask again and ran around finding things the little boy and girl would like to get.
My oldest turns 3 February 5th, when is your son’s birthday? The baby will be one May 20, so our younger ones are only 4 months apart. How fun!
So great! We had a huge packing party at church on Sunday, so our kids packed several boxes for children their age. It was sweet. I love this tradition that your family has chosen.
Packing shoe boxes is so fun! My daughter loves it too. 🙂 I found your blog @ Works for me Wednesday. I would love it if you could link up on my new linky party: http://www.joyfocusedlearning.com/2013/11/anything-goes-link-up-1.html
Yes, the shoe boxes are a blast! Such a fun tradition and memory to make as a family.
Stopping by from Jellibean party. Teaching your children service and compassion are the greatest gifts you can give. Thank you for all you are doing!
Thanks for stopping by and for your kind words. I do want my kids to grow up loving serving, so hopefully projects like these will help.
Your children are so adorable! Mine are all grown now and I am reminded of their days of putting together Operation Christmas boxes. Have a lovely evening.
Aww, thank you! You are very kind! You have a great evening as well!
We delivered our boxes today. It is a fun and special thing to do with the kids.
It is so fun! I hope they grow up with this as one of their favorite memories of the holiday season. It is neat to see how many people participate.