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Our Family "Halloween" Tradition

There are a lot of blog posts about Halloween floating around right now. I have my own personal convictions about Halloween - as does every one else - but I am not going to get into that in this post! I want to share a tradition that we started on October 31st a few years ago...



Each year on October 31st we take our children out for a cheap lunch/dinner (check www.outtoeatwithkids.com for places where kids eat free!) and then we go to a local bargain store or dollar store. We have each of our children sponsor a child for Operation Christmas Child that is their same age and gender, and we let them pick out some toys and other items to fill up their boxes! After we have purchased the items for our boxes, we head home to fill and decorate them. We let the children wrap/decorate their boxes and write a letter to the child that will receive it. Sometimes we also add in family photos.

Here are some pictures from the past couple years...
"Since 1993, more than 100 million boys and girls in over 130 countries have experienced God’s love through the power of simple shoebox gifts from Operation Christmas Child. Samaritan’s Purse works with local churches and ministry partners to deliver the gifts and share the life-changing Good News of Jesus Christ." - Samaritanspurse.org


 Operation Christmas Child is run by Samaritan's Purse. For more information please visit their website. They ask that you include a $7.00 donation with your box and deliver your boxes to a local drop-off center during the week of November 18th-25th. 

Have you ever donated to Operation Christmas Child? What is your favorite way to "give"?

Comments

  1. GabbyOctober 21, 2013 at 9:20 PM

    What a great idea!! I love this. We don't mess with Halloween either, so this is a great way to do something special and others-focused as a family.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownOctober 22, 2013 at 10:04 AM

    Awesome idea! Perfect for starting the holiday season off right!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Enjoying the ChaosOctober 22, 2013 at 6:06 PM

    What fun!

    ReplyDelete
  4. GabbyOctober 22, 2013 at 10:19 PM

    Just linked to this on my Halloween (er, not Halloween!) post!

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownOctober 13, 2014 at 5:50 PM

    What a wonderful tradition!! I love this :) Thanks so much for sharing. Keeping it other focused actually does redeem the day.

    ReplyDelete

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