Today is day 18 of the 25 Christmas Activities to Do with your Family. Today is a little bit of a change from the angle we’ve been going. Most of this month I’ve been talking about family-centric things to do with your family. But today we’re talking about practicing acts of charity at Christmas because giving is fun too.
Practicing Acts of Charity at Christmas
It’s never too early to learn that there are others who are less fortunate than you are. And Christmas is a perfect time year to help your children learn about practicing acts of charity.
Each year we take on a couple projects to help those who are less fortunate than we are. Our daycare participates in Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child Shoe Boxes program. These shoe boxes are filled with small gifts and sent to children in other countries that are less fortunate than ours. So our family takes two boxes each year. Both Sunshine and The Boy go to the Dollar Store and pick out 10 to 15 items to fill one box for a boy and one box for a girl.
My kids have fun picking out the small toys, coloring items and toiletries that they think another child might like. Then, when we get home, it like a game of Tetris to try to fit everything into that shoe box. In addition, the daycare has packing party days. Often, my kids miss it because they do it on Veterans’ Day which is the day we have set aside to make Christmas cards, but I know that when they do help pack the other boxes that it is a fun and joyful day of giving too.
Charity at Christmas through Church
We also participate in our church’s is Giving Tree program. Many churches have similar programs. (I know that the parish I grew up in did, so I imagine that churches all over the country do something similar.)
The Christmas tree goes up early in the season with ornament tags suggesting what the person would like or an age and sex. This year we were lucky enough to get an eight-year-old girl and a six-year-old boy which is just the ages of our children. They were each able pick out a gift to give to a child on the tag. As Legos are high on our Santa Lists this year, that’s what our Giving Tree friends will be getting this year.
Teaching about Charity at Christmas
This is year I really tried to get the point across to The Boy about what we are doing and why. So before we went to Walmart to pick out the gifts for the Giving Tree, I said to him, ” Some kids are not as lucky as you are. If you could only get one gift for Christmas this year, what would you want it to be?” It was interesting to watch his reaction because it was clear that the wheels were working in his head as he processed that question and very thoughtfully picked out the Classic Legos so that “he can build houses or whatever he wants.”
At the moment mommy and daddy still pay for these gifts. However in future years, I’m thinking that it will be a good idea for the kids to actually use some of their own money for these projects. And, our projects have not been limited to the Christmas present ones. We have sent canned foods to school for Thanksgiving baskets and toys to go to children in Puerto Rico who were devastated by this year’s hurricane.
25 Days of Christmas Activities
So we hope you will join us this year in teaching your children about practicing acts of charity. It is never too early to teach your kids that there are people around the world and in your local community who are less fortunate than you are.
Be sure to stop back tomorrow and for the next seven days to find other great traditions to share with your family during the 25 Days of Christmas Activities. And don’t forget to check out the first 17 days too.
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