Wrapping up the Christmas Season
We concluded our storytimes for the year on December 17. Storytime has been an incredible blessing for our family, providing a unique opportunity to learn more about Jesus and bless others through our activities. During this holiday season, we focused on God’s treasures and read about the greatest gift we have ever received.
As part of our storytime, we also prepared gifts to bless children worldwide through Operation Christmas Child. Our family enjoyed choosing unique tokens of love for the kids and creating handmade gifts, such as prayer journals, to help deepen their relationship with God. We assembled boxes for a special boy or girl aged 2-4 and another for a child aged 5-7.
Cost for this activity
It doesn’t have to cost much, and the kids who receive it are so very blessed and grateful, no matter how small the gift. Surprisingly, the box doesn’t hold much, which helps manage cost. However, it was big enough to hold a variety of different types of trinkets. The rectangular shape and size did restrict the type and shape of the gift you could include. We overstuffed our box, so it was on the higher end of the price range below. However, it could have cost a lot less.
- The boxes: $0 (free and available at local churches).
- Shipping: $10 per box.
- Gifts: $10-$25 per box (items from the dollar store!)
Reaching little hearts
This activity was terrific as our kids (boy and girl) are those ages, so they could pick great gifts they think the children would like! I highly recommend that families do this activity as it helps our children foster the love of giving and urges them to think about others’ wants and needs during the holidays rather than only their own. Any activity that helps to point our kids away from selfishness and build a character of selfless love is a plus in my book!
”It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Acts 20:35
During our shopping trip, my children said, “That’s a great gift for a little girl.” However, my daughter would interject, “But I want that for me!” I had to remind her to focus on our goal of helping someone else. Your kids might do the same, but keep encouraging them! It’s worth it. In the end, my daughter contributed a jelly bean bag she liked to the Shoebox. She said, “Okay, Mommy, we can buy the jelly beans for the kids!” I finally got her approval. 😊 I also bought them a $1 ornament to cheer them up. By the time we got home, they had forgotten about it—kids! 😆
I could see the Holy Spirit working in their hearts and minds as we went through this selection, packing, and shipping process. They were so proud to add their hand-crafted journals to the box!
Tracking the boxes
So, where did our boxes end up? I love this feature of the Shoebox! The kids were super excited to see that one of their boxes went to a child in Jamaica (our family has heritage in Jamaica)! What a wonderful surprise from God. Learn more about Jamaica here and Samaritan’s purse.
There’s also this incredible story about Jamaican twins who received a shoebox; read it here.
Our second box, the one for a boy and girl aged 5 – 7, went to Mauritius, which is an island in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar. Learn more about shoeboxes to Mauritius here.
Wrap up
This family activity was such a blessing to our family – the blessing went two ways! We continue to pray for the children who received the boxes and will do this again next year! Have you ever participated in Operation Christmas Child?
We would love to hear your stories in the comments below.
