The holidays are almost here, can you believe it?
Another year has almost come to an end and it's holiday shopping season once again! Before I begin shopping for the children in our family, I start thinking about which charities I want our family to be involved with each holiday season.
It is so important to me that my daughter grow up with a first hand knowledge of the joy that helping others brings.
Angeline and I have been involved in a few charitable programs since she was in elementary school. When she was in kindergarten, she came home one day and told me that some of her friends were not going to be able to see Santa at school because their parents couldn't afford to pay the $1 for the special program...after calling the school to find out about sponsoring those kids, we ended up not only assisting a few children to go on field trips and other school activities, but also working with the PTA during the holidays to help arrange Thanksgiving food baskets and Christmas baskets and gifts.
From a very early age, Angeline understood that she was lucky and that while she may not always have everything she wants, she has a lot more than some people. We have worked with Angel Tree and Toys for Tots, as well as donated to our local homeless shelter and the children's hospital charity drive year after year, and each year, we find new ways to give back.
This holiday season, we are once again participating in Operation Christmas Child, a non-profit charitable organization that delivers toy-filled shoe boxes to children around the world.
Over the past 20+ years, millions of children in impoverished nations have received not only the gifts of love and hope, but real, tangible gifts delivered in these shoe boxes.
It is SO EASY to get involved with Operation Christmas Child! Angeline and I went to Target and spent about $30 on two clear plastic shoe box-sized containers and plenty of small toys and whatnot.
We decided to sponsor a boy and a girl, and filled the containers with a stuffed animal, Life Savers candies, soap, wet wipes, jump ropes, toothbrushes and toothpaste, stickers and coloring books, socks, toys, lip balm and more toys.
The great thing about Operation Christmas Child is that you can fill your shoe box from home, or a reusable plastic container, with whatever you like OR you can just Build-A-Box on the Operation Christmas Child website if you don't have time to go shopping!
Whichever way you choose, you just choose whether you want to give to a boy or girl, choose an age range, and then fill your box up.
We are going to take our boxes to the drop off location next week, once drop offs officially begin.
Have you ever created a shoe box for a child through Operation Christmas Child? If you have, I would love to hear your story!
If you haven't, I would love for you to consider participating in Operation Christmas Child, through Samaritan's Purse. Whether it be by making your own shoe box for a child or by using the Build-A-Box function online, or simply by donating to Operation Christmas Child - it is such a wonderful way to teach our kids what the holidays are all about: being thankful for what we have and spreading the goodwill to others.
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.
