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25 Days of Christmas
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Starting Dec. 1 our family will be celebrating Christmas with 25 days of giving. $ is really tight this year and I want the kids to really grasp that Christmas is all about God giving us His son. So everyday we will be doing something for someone else. I have some ideas so far: having them ring the bells for Salvation Army, playing the piano at a nursing home, having our newly widower neighbor over for supper, having a single mom and her kids over for dinner, making cookies for the mailman and trashman. I was wondering if any of you would want to do this with me and share your ideas. Thanks so much. You can also check out what we do everyday on our blog at jeffandsaraPackard.blogspot.com
thanks
How about these:
You could visit a widow, make cards or ornaments for kids in the hospital, take cookies to the firestation, police, etc, pick up trash, volunteer in a kitchen for meals on wheels (ours also serves lunch at the place they cook it), ask if there is a person with no family at the nursing home that could handle and enjoy a visit from children, ask if there is any person there who could use some mending of clothing or a lap quilt, or socks, etc., sometimes in the evenings they love for volunteers to wash wheelchairs in the showers, go Christmas caroling, help decorate an older persons home, write to the soldiers serving, visit a Veteran’s Home, see if the highway patrol is collecting crib size quilts and teddy bears for children in accidents and donate some new or like-new items (I usually had an extra quilt or 2 after each child) – let me think on it some more. =)
If you are interested in Christmas cards for soldiers, check out the Holiday Mail for Heroes program through the Red Cross. I do this every year.
Sara – we are doing this as well, as a family, but I also was moved this year to do a 25 days of giving activity with our cub scout troop. As a group, we are doing 25 acts of kindness in the holiday spirit. I made a big calendar of December, and at each meeting, any boys who have done a giving or loving act for the holidays can put a sticker on the calendar – we are aiming for 25 stickers, as a group. We lauched the event last night at our regular scout meeting by — guess what — making cards for Holiday Mail for Heroes LOL. The scouts are doing a local food drive and giveaway – adopting two families for Chistmas baskets – helping decorate our community center for Christmas – plus their individual actions to fill out the 25 days. This makes me so happy!
This year we have less $$$ than I can remember – since we had a bad financial setback when I was pregnant with my oldest dd – 11 years ago. BUT me and the kids are already enjoying Christmas more than ever because of all the activities we have been doing. I hope that by Christmas morning they are so full of the spirit of love and giving that if certain friends get a Nintendo 3DS it won’t sting too bad that my kids are NOT :(.
Wow..thanks for all the ideas. I’m really excited about getting started. I’m hoping for the same thing Gem. I hope that this Christmas morning they are more exctied aobut giving then receiving.
We are not giving gifts this year, and the money we might have spent we are going to help stock our local food pantry which is in dire need this year. Money is tight and we don’t like a big grabby Christmas – we never had, so this year we just decided to bake and donate and give to the pantry. I think it is great what you are all doing.
Thank you for posting this, Sara!! This has really inspired me. I love hearing everyone else’s ideas, and I hope to hear more! Our boys are only here part time, but we are trying to encourage them as much as possible to be looking for ways to serve others while not in our home. Before they left today, we baked cookies and packaged them to hand out to neighbor friends.
Also, as part of our advent devotions, we are planting a seed or grass or wheat for each act of love and kindness that we do. In the end, this will be the straw for baby Jesus’ manger. My kids think it’s a neat visual representation of what they’ve been doing. They love the idea!
Get a list of shut-ins from your church and visit them, offer to do the grocery shopping for them, help them clean their home, and/ or decorate for Christmas (maybe bring a wreath that the kiddos make – several easy tutorials on youtube that cost little to nothing using stuff you already have).
Adopt a grandma/ grandpa at the nursing home and visit them with goodies and cards throughout the season (and afterward, too).
Find out if there is a single mom/ dad at your church that would like a night free to do shopping – Christmas or otherwise – while you had their child(ren) over for a play date.
Invite kids whose parents are in the service or who’ve lost a parent or close family member over to bake cookies together and send them home with some of the fruits of your combined labor.
Make up some simple personal care bags to give to a homeless shelter or a woman’s shelter.
Clean out the stuffed animals in your children’s lives (obviously they would help) and donate the gently loved ones to a woman’s shelter. Many of the women come in with their children, and both the woman and children benefit from something to hug and squeeze.
Be a secret giver (ala – Santa) to your pastor or other person – leave them a homemade batch of something yummy with a homemade hot cocoa mix with a note that thanks them for all they do. (Depending upon where you live, you may have to reveal who you are. Our congregation is a small one, so a secret gift left for our pastor would be a welcome thoughtful gesture, not something to consider suspicious.)
Write a note of encouragement and send cards to the missionary(ies) that your church supports or that you may know.
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