Operation Christmas Child

The girls and I had a really good time doing the Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes this year.  If you’re not familiar with the shoeboxes, basically you pick an age group, pack a shoe box with age-appropriate toys and necessities and then they are shipped out to kids of that age group that will not get a Christmas otherwise.  I’ve done it before but for whatever reason took a few years off.  I’m so sorry I did because the girls and I had a great time packing them.  We watched several of the videos together and I think they really GOT that this would be their only Christmas present.  Lexi, who LOVES her toys, even dug into her own toy box to donate.

A huge help this year is that my couponing REALLY paid off.  I think we packed each box for about $5 and they were STUFFED.  Here are 10 of the things we packed:

1. Toothbrush/toothpaste (free thx to couponing)
2. Gum(free thx to couponing)
3. Stuffed Animal (free thx to couponing)
4. Dice and cards
5. Coloring book/crayon
6. Chapstick and eye shadow (to play dress-up of course & free thx to couponing)
7. My Little Pony toys and other plastic figurines that were like new (which the girls donated from their collection)
8. Flashlight
9. Pens/Highlighters (free thx to couponing)
10. Plush purse

As you might can tell, we picked a 5-9 year old girl.  What I love about this year is that they now have a tracking system and you can track which country it goes to.  I’m hoping for Haiti (a new country this year) and Emma thinks it will be Russia.  Our church was not participating this year so to top it off, we donated ours at our local Chick-fil-a and received two free chicken sandwiches! 

The great news is YOU still have about a week to put one together!  Here’s a video on how to pack it and get more information on their site for labels and donation sites near you.

This post was submitted on OhAmanda’s Top Ten Tuesday