This is the time of year to pack a "Christmas Shoebox" and bring it to the nearest Collection location.
And also the perfect time for me to insert a personal memory of Mom and me.
The first year we decided to pack a "Christmas Shoebox" was around the year 2005.
I had gone over to Mom's apartment to do one of our "long" weekends where I got a bunch of groceries and we'd cook, bake, talk, sing, laugh, pray and EAT our way through three or four days.
She lived very close to a Safeway grocery store and at that time Safeway was still officially involved with the Christmas Shoeboxes. As I was leaving the store with my full cart I noticed a Safeway employee setting up a display for "Operation Christmas Child" and assembling a few of these green and red Shoeboxes. The rest she had just left folded and next to the others. She smiled at me and asked, "Do you want a box?"
I told her I didn't know what it was about and she basically told me that we were supposed to pack a shoebox with things a poor child from another country would like and then bring it back to Safeway the following week. Then she handed me a pamphlet which contained everything I needed to know and told me she had done it and it was both simple and a lot of fun.
So I went to Mom's apartment and as she was helping me unpack the groceries (aka.. rummaging for the chocolate pudding) she came across the folded box and asked, "What is this box about?"
Which is a code between us that meant, "There's a story behind this and I want to hear it."
To make a long story short (which I did NOT do for her), Mom and I decided to fill a "Christmas Shoebox". We read the little pamphlet, chose to fill a box for a "Girl, age 10-14" and the next day we headed out together to the nearby "Zellers" and "Dollar Store".
Two evenings later we packed our Shoebox while we talked, sang, laughed, prayed and ATE our way through the night. What was amazing was the amount of excitement it brought us. We put Christmas music on and Mom 'attacked' her dresser drawers and closets and kept coming out with all sorts of items she added to those we had bought and repeated the question, "Do you think she would like this too?"
My repeated answer, "I'm sure she will but how do we fit all of these things into that one little shoebox?"
We stopped to survey the "goodies" that we had assembled on Mom's sofa and I came to the conclusion that we either put 2/3 of the things back, have a yard sale or I would need to go and get some more Shoeboxes.
That was our first experience with "Operation Christmas Child" and filling a "Christmas Shoebox". Do I need to tell you what happened the following years? We were hooked from then on and it became a yearly tradition for us and the part of Christmas we enjoyed the most.
Each year once our Shoebox (es) was packed and ready, we would always enclose a Christmas card with a picture of us, then join hands to pray for the child that would receive the box.
Wonderful times, wonderful memories.
Mom lived in a Seniors apartment building and any tenant was allowed to use the recreation room and we had decided that we just had to include others in this wonderful tradition and throw a "Packing Party". But the year we had decided we were going to do it and invite everyone in Mom's building was the year Safeway was no longer involved and the nearest drop off location was 5 km away. I didn't have a car or the Internet and I was just unable to get the materials I needed or a way to get all the boxes to where they needed to be.
My church was doing "Shoeboxes" that year, so Mom and I still filled a box and I brought it home with me on the bus so I could drop it off at my church. But the big party didn't happen.
Now "Samaritan's Purse" (the charity that sponsors "Operation Christmas Child - OCC) has a LOT of ways to fill a box and plenty of wonderful options. However, for me, filling a "virtual" box online isn't quite as fun as the hands on approach.
One newer option that I do find rather "neat-o" is the ability to "track" the specific Shoebox you filled.
If you have children, this is a tradition you simply must do. I don't know if they'll be as excited as Mom and I would get, but they'll come pretty close.
Operation Christmas Child and Samaritan's Purse is constantly expanding but at the heart of it all is a person HERE helping a child THERE.
A child so poor that a toothbrush is a "Wow!" item, who has never even heard the word Christmas and has no idea that God exists or that Jesus loves them.You can change all that by simply sending them a Christmas Shoebox. You'll never be the same and neither will they.
Follow the Links below for the information you'll need. You can also find labels, suggestions on what to send, videos, promotional material, a drop-off location finder and everything else you will possibly need.
Samaritans Purse CANADA
Samaritans Purse International
As for me, each year I still pray for all the children Mom and I filled boxes for through the years and I have the pleasure of being touched again with the joy we shared while filling the boxes together.
Memories, traditions, Christmas and love. Thanks for allowing me to share these with you.
Love Laura-Lee (Was Here)
(FYI)
LINK Operation Christmas Child (OCC) YouTube Video
(FYF = "For Your Fun")
LINK Opening Shoeboxes in Cambodia (OCC) YouTube
