Tis the Season to be Giving

The holiday season can be a lot of things: there is pressure to get the house decorated just so; to have the perfect gift for everyone, including your cousin's uncle's sister's best friend; there are parties to attend; meals to prepare; cards to send and people to visit. And that is just to mention the socially expected norms for the season, it overlooks the heart of why we do it all. For our family it is a very exciting time of togetherness and I look forward to this time of year most of all! But for some families that is not the case, it is a stressful time that exacerbates not having enough to go around and pulls other challenges to the fore front. For these reasons, and because of what we are actually celebrating this season I am trying to impress upon our girls the importance of giving. They are still young and it is not quite making sense, but it will and giving will be one of our family traditions that I hope only grows with our girls ages.

We attend a great local church and they have everything setup to do what we call "Turkey Bags". We get the paper bags with lists of what to purchase from the church and then fill the bags and make a monetary donation for the turkey to go along with our bags. My mom, myself, and the girls venture out each year to fill the bags and try to teach the girls the why behind the bag. Below is a sample list of the items we purchase, just in case you want to do something similar.

It doesn't have to be this project though, anything involving giving is great to do. This young generation is being raised in a world of instant gratification with a bad case of the "Keeping up with the Jones'" and it is in my opinion, our duty to show them that thinking about others is key and if you are fortunate enough to have enough, then you need to be kind enough to give enough. If we don't teach them this, who will? And what will become of a world that doesn't look out for one another? Who forgets to give? Okay, off the soapbox, here are a couple of other ideas you might be able to do if "Turkey Bags" won't work for you:

*Volunteer to serve at a local soup kitchen

*Make donations to the local foodbank minus the turkey: If you are donating food, black out the UPC codes so that it cannot be returned for money. I don't even like to bring that up, but the reality is that things happen.

*Ask a local church or school if there is a family you could donate a bag to

*Visit a nursing home and hand out cards or snacks

*Look around your neighborhood and leave something nice for a lonely neighbor: If you go this route be sure if you leave a package as a surprise to wrap it in clear cellophane so that they can see it's contents. This will keep the neighborhood from a suspicious package visit complements of the local police department.

Turkey Bag List:

Instant mashed potatoes

Box of stuffing

Can of fruit cocktail

Can of cranberries

Canned vegetables

Jello

Box of biscuit or dinner roll mix

Evaporated milk

Pickles and olives

Package of gravy mix

Pie crust mix

Pie filling

We always try to add a little something extra, to make our bag a little more fun. We have added items like; hot cocoa mix, packaged cookies, cream of mushroom soup and French onions (to make green bean casserole), cookie mix, etc.

Be sure if you are donating to the food bank that you only include non perishable items so that nothing is spoiled by the time it gets to a families hands.

Maybe it is too late for you to get this setup for Thanksgiving this year, but Christmas meals are a big deal too and they offer you another chance to give. :)

Some of you may have similar traditions, please share those in the comments. We are working on our Operation Christmas Child boxes right now, it is collection week. I will share more about those in another post very soon!

#littleladieslife

#seasonofgiving