Christmas Shoeboxes

Some of the OCC boxes collected at BCM.

At our house we follow the rule of no-Christmas-stuff-until-the-day-after-Thanksgiving, but there is one big exception. Operation Christmas Child. click here to read more about it. Basically, you pick a gender/age group (2-4, 5-9, 10-14 & boy or girl) and fill a box with all sorts of things from hygiene items to school supplies to toys. The boxes are then collected and shipped around the world to kids in need. I think this is our 4th or 5th year participating, and we always have lots of fun with it. Mom & I usually go shopping for the boxes together and have fun picking out stuff. I enjoy it because I get to pick out school supplies (some of my favorite things!) and buy toys, which I normally don't get to do because I'm the youngest in my immediate family. There's also the fun challenge of seeing just how much stuff you can get in that one little shoebox!

All the stuff to go in the boxes! I chose to do 2 boxes: one for a boy & one for a girl, both 10-14.

With the help of Pinterest, I made up
a little fishing kit for my 10-14 yr old
boy box.

I put in a custom note for my kids.
Maybe one of them will write me back.
Find a similar template HERE.

This year I found even more ideas of what to put in the boxes thanks to Pinterest - if you search for 'Operation Christmas Child' it comes up with all kinds of stuff. I also ran across this blog Clip with a Purpose that has the motherload of ideas and info about what to put in the boxes, as well as tips for buying stuff year-round (when it's on sale) so you can get even more stuff to put in the boxes! I will definitely be doing that this coming year. Of course it's awesome to know that somewhere the box I pack is going to make some kid's day. This will be the third year I've put special tracking labels on our boxes, and I can't wait to see where they end up this year. Last year our boxes went to the Dem. Republic of Congo, and the year before that they ended up in Ukraine!

If you've never participated in Operation Christmas Child, I encourage you to do it in 2014. It's easy and super fun, and it blesses a child who really needs it!

Ready to go shoeboxes! Where will they end up?!