Anyone doing Operation Christmas Child?

[bubbaray]

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/Pack_A_Shoe_Box/

We've done it through our church in past years. Will be doing it through the girls' daycare this year. I am totally not with it yet (still not feeling great physically). We will do 2x girls boxes. What are you putting in your box?

So far I have:
toothbrush
toothpaste
soap
comb
pencils & sharpener
crayons
paper
lollipops

Any other ideas?

[WatchingThemGrow]

IIRC we put in some kind of small soft doll/animal toy. I had the papers on the table and the DC helped themselves to crayons and colored them on their own :)

does a small bar of soap meet the criteria?

[cindys]

We are going to be doing this for the 1st time..

My in-laws lost their home and vehicles in the Ga flood here in Sept...

Samaritans Purse came and gutted my in-laws house and worked for 2 days straight...It was just amazing..

Just writing this brings tears to my eyes, they were so wonderful..

On their website you can see my in-laws story...They lived in Hiram, Ga

CNN was also there doing a segment on Samaritans Purse while they were working on their home..

[vonfirmath]

We're doing it with our church. Our job is to bring in tooth brushes and toothpaste.

[cpapay]

So far we have:
tissues
washcloth
soap
toothbrushes
Hair brush
tooth paste
hello kitty light up stamper
hello kitty activity pad
jump rope
crayons
Smarties candies

OCC is such a great way to teach my daugther about giving to others. Just going to the store to get the items has been so great!

[missliss55]

We have done it for the past couple of years. I take the big girls and we go shopping together...they really enjoy picking things out for the kids.

[willow33]

We will be doing it again this year. I like that the kids feel so involved in picking out the little items to go in the box.

[Momof3Labs]

DS2's church-based preschool is doing it, in cooperation with the congregation. I pulled out a bunch of new small toys that I've picked up at Target clearances past - etch a sketch, magna doodle, small cars, crayons, coloring books, etc. I also put in the nice, wrapped H2O mickey head soaps that you get at the WDW hotels.

How about a cute drinking cup?

[Puddy73]

Yes, we participate through our church. It is a good project to involve the kids because they enjoy picking out little items. We usually hit the one spot at Target or the dollar store for coloring books, socks, notepads, hair bows, games, etc. This year we also included some Yummy Earth lollipops from the great Amazon deal. IIRC they prefer plastic shoe boxes to cardboard ones.

[o_mom]

Yes! We are doing 'boy' boxes here.

For 2-4 yo:

stickers
small activity pad
crayons
t-shirt
matchbox cars
travel doodle pro
gum
toothbrush

5-9 yo:

small lego set
colored pencils
pencil sharpener
blank drawing pad
t-shirt
nerf ball
slinky
toothbrush
gum

The crayons and colored pencils are extras from when they were cheap for back to school. The toothbrushes are the extras we get from the dentist (still in package). I found t-shirts for $1.75 at Target on clearance. Dollar Tree was a great place to hit up as well - coloring books, etc for $1. For a girl I would maybe do hair clips, bracelet or something like that.

[alexsmommy]

I love this! I usually pick up a letter from the post office, but this is so great too... and there is a drop off location in my town. Perfect.

[pastrygirl]

I do it through a local church. I put in whatever is there when I get there, though I think I'm donating some washcloths this time. :)

Someone told me about pretty shoe-box size boxes at Christmas Tree Shops that are decorated inside and out. I picked up a few of those today.

[poppy]

Crayons/coloring books
Small Notepads
Pencils/pens
small toys
tolietries
personalized Christmas card from us

There's a list of items we choose from given to us by our church.

[bubbaray]

THanks ladies -- good thing I asked at the daycare. Each family is buying ONE type of item (I chose pencils & sharpeners, I might throw in some crayons). Not filling an individual box like we've done through the church in previous years.

Funny, they said no toothpaste this year, nor lipbalm or any food. Hmmm.

[MamaKath]

Coloring books, small stuffed animals, stickers, dolls, tiny tote bags, crayons, playing cards, finger puppets, wooden instruments, wooden cars.

We have been sending in items to our church/school as well as having done a few boxes. I took my kids to Target with buying things for their box as our only activity. It was very hard for them to think of things that would work and would be liked, but not get anything themselves.

[TamiRuns]

Someone told me about pretty shoe-box size boxes at Christmas Tree Shops that are decorated inside and out. I picked up a few of those today.

I'm putting a box together for our church. I would love to find one of those boxes but we don't have a CTS around these parts. Anyone see these anywhere else?

[WatchingThemGrow]

I went to their webpage to see if they had any items they recommend https://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/Pack_A_Shoe_Box/

[karenj2]

I *just* picked one up yesterday at our church! Thanks for the ideas...

[vonfirmath]

1. Operation Christmas child recommends toothpaste. So that is odd

2. When you put something like a Lego set in, do you take the box apart and put the box in, flattened, and the plastic bag, etc. so you can fit in more without air taking up so much space?

[carolinamama]

Just did this with my MOPS group last week. Here are some things we put in:

crayons
paper
coloring books
pencils/sharpener
toothbrush/toothpaste
bar of soap/washcloth
gum
hard candy
hair ribbons/bows
little toys/matchbox cars
nerf balls
stickers

[AngelaS]

Perhaps you have a local dentist donating toothpaste which is why you don't need more. :)

We do these too. We found balls and kalidescopes and small puzzles in boxes at the dollar store. I've also put in socks, tee shirts, school stuff and so on. :)

[clc053103]

We do it through DS's church based preschool. This year we chose boy 2-4:
toddler toothpaste
multipack of toothbrushes
soap
pez dispenser
mini slinky
crayons
markers
socks
matchbox cars
yo yo
mini playdough
and I put it all in a plastic shoe box from target so it doesn't need to be wrapped, and it is reusable.

This year DS (4) really understood what we were doing, it was nice to see him care about giving something to another child in need.