12 Days of Christmas Giving

Well, in the spirit of "Christmas Shoes" (ah, I couldn't resist.... you all know how I feel about that song), our family is celebrating 12 Days of Christmas Giving. The kids will be doing a good deed for each of the 12 days leading up to Christmas starting this Sunday, Dec 13 and ending on Christmas Eve, with a big celebration in honor Christ's birthday on Christmas Day.

Okay, well, before I tell you a bit more, my lovely British husband would like to interrupt for a minute and inform everyone that the real 12 days of Christmas are celebrated after Christmas in honor of the Feast of the Epiphany.

Which is true, but, we're going to spend the 12 days before Christmas doing our 12 Days of Giving.

So, here's the deal. We have a very spoiled child in our midst. I won't go into all the details, but will say that we've decided to really tackle the issue this year.

We really do believe that the best thing you can do for your child is teach them to have a servant's heart.

I mean, really. You can have the best education, the fanciest car, the highest salary... but it doesn't mean anything if you don't have a good heart, right? So this past year we've really been heavily introducing the kids to giving back.

For their birthdays this year, each child received $25 dollars to give to a charity of their choice. Eli chose Mayan Families. Nandi sponsored her "auntie" in Northern Ireland who completed a fundraising walk for Dogs Trust, and Noah, through RPM, chose to donate his $25 to the Eve Carson Memorial Scholarship at UNC Chapel Hill - in honor of his good friend, Mr. Anoop Desai.

Sniff, sniff. A mama couldn't be prouder.

And the kids have been phenomenal about helping me gather supplies for my trip to India next month. Eli donated his tooth fairy money to help buy a tamale basket for our sponsor child's family for Christmas. (We sponsor a little boy named Delvin through Mayan Families) and Nandi has collected pennies from under the couch to go to Sarah's kids in India.

I mean, they are really doing great.

But here's comes Christmas. Commercial Christmas. And, man oh man, the greed monster has hit big time.

Enter.... Operation Twelve Days of Christmas Giving.

So this year, in lieu of throwing our hands up in the air in frustration and shouting "I give up! Christmas is cancelled!", we've decided to counteract all the commericalism of the Christmas Season by encouraging (okay, we're forcing them) to give back by doing 12 Days of Christmas Giving, where they will do one good deed for someone each day leading up to Christmas.

We'll scrapbook each day (on the cheap b/c I'm not a scrapbooker, plus we're broke) and put it in an album for them to look back on each year. If we do this each year until they reach 18, we'll have 10 or more albums for them to look back on each year and remind them of everyone they've helped.

And in the end, when they're adults, they'll probably not remember the dinosaur they got that one year or the train set or the remote control puppy. But when they tell their own children about their Christmas memories, I guarantee they'll remember all the years of their childhood and youth spend doing the 12 Days of Christmas Giving.

And then they'll pass it on their children, who will pass on their children, and soon there will be generations and generations of our family showing what it means to have a servant's heart.

Or so I hope. They could really just hate it.

Gosh, I hope not.

So, here's the thing. We didn't budget for this and we don't have a lot of money. So it will be done very cheaply this year. We're thinking of doing small things:

1. Dipping candy canes in chocolate, rolling them in sprinkles and passing them out to the kids at church

2. Donating canned food to the local food pantry (bought with coupons)

3. Buying some dog and cat food and donating it to the local Humane Society (bought with coupons)

4. Having flowers delivered to a lonely resident at our local nursing home (our big splurge)

5. Donating one of our books (used, but in excellent shape) to the local library. (We're donating Greg Mortenson's "Listen to the Wind". Excellent book for kids on giving!!)

6. Driving through McDonald's and paying for the person's meal behind us. (Praying they've only ordered a Diet Dr. Pepper - heehee)

7. Buying a small $10 gift certificate at Walmart and asking the cashier to give it to the next person in line. (We live in a small town where we know all the WM cashiers)

8. Making a diabetic friendly pie for our elderly neighbors next door

9. Making goodies for our other neighbors

10. Have the kids help make a crockpot roast, potatoes, and carrots and take them to their great grandparents, Pa Lester and MawMaw Ruby. Plus, Nandi makes a mean blackberry pie. That little 5 year old can cook! (My parents have a freezer full of roast that we can use)

11. Donating toys from our "Gift Closet" (we buy clearanced items year round) to Toys for Tots

12. Buying presents for our sponsor child (a 38 year old cognitively disabled man who we've locally sponsored for Christmas for the last 2 years)

These are 12 suggestions, but they're not necessarily the 12 we'll do. We may change it up while we go, but I will definitely blog about it, scrapbook it, put it an album and feel good knowing that my kids did something Christlike this year.

Now.... if anyone knows of a little boy who wants to buy his mama some Christmas Shoes this year, let me know. Seriously, that would be perfect for one of the days of the 12 Days of Christmas Giving...and would serve me right for hatin' on such a Christmas classic. lol

P.S. Feel free to join us!! The first day of Christmas starts this Sunday!