Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes

Every Christmas season is a joyful time. Lights, presents, family, and food. But not everyone has a joyful Christmas, or know the reason for Christmas.

Operation Christmas Child (OCC) makes sure that children all over the world experience Christmas with shoeboxes. These shoeboxes are lovingly packed by people all over the United States. Not always with shoes either. Some churches get together and pack shoeboxes via an assembly line, or some churches have drop offs for families or individual who have made these shoeboxes. Once the shoeboxes get dropped off at a church or collection center, they will make there way to one of the Samaritan’s Purse Processing Centers. You may be familiar with OCC. If you are I hope you find some good ideas; if you are not, then I hope you might try to contribute to this organization this coming Christmas season.



The Processing Center in Boone, NC

Step 1: Box

First you need to get a shoebox. BIGGER IS NOT BETTER. I have volunteered in the distribution center, and it makes things more difficult for shipping purposes. You can use a shoebox from some leftover shoes or also get the OCC boxes made specifically for OCC. All in all, I recommend a shoebox from your house, or one of the OCC boxes.

    Step 2: Label

Pick a gender and an age category for your box. You can get labels here. The age groups are 2-4, 5-9, and 10-14. Ages 5-9 typically get the most donated boxes.

Step 3: Items

The items you put in the box are very important. They can impact the child's life more than you can imagine. You want to put useful things in the box and also put allowed things into the box. You also don’t want to put anything useless in the box. Volunteering at the distribution center can give you great ideas of what to do and what not to do.

In December 2016 my mother and I packed some shoeboxes for 10-14 year old girls and boys.

Here is what we packed:

IN BOTH	GIRLS	BOYS
Pencil Pouch	Sewing Kit	Pump
Pencils	Brush/Mirror	Deflated Soccer Ball (size 1)
Pens
Keychain Flashlight
Calculator (Solar)
Toothpaste
Toothbrush
Cup (Design your own)
Washcloth (Magic)
String Backpacks

Girl's Box

Boy's Box

We had a lot of extra room in our shoeboxes, so we added some more to them.Here is some of what we added and some extra ideas:

IN BOTH	GIRLS	BOYS
Shirt	Fabric	Fishing Kit
Socks	Reusable menstrual pads (Tutorial 1, Tutorial 2)	Tools: paintbrush, measuring tape, screwdriver set, etc.
Flipflops	Elastic Headbands
Notepad
Bandaids
Underwear
Eating Utensils
Bowls

There are many items you cannot put into the shoeboxes and there are more good things to put in the shoeboxes; here is a link to those items. There are other items that are just a bad idea. First of all, make sure the items in your box are age and gender appropriate. Baby dolls in a 10-14 box for a girl does not make much sense. Also remember that camo is a war related item and a big no-no.

    Step 4: Finding a collection center

There is probably a lot of churches in your area that collect packed boxes. Sometimes there are other official collection points (collection points). If you live near a processing center you can drop them off there.