Ideas to Fill Your Operation Christmas Child Box

Many churches around the country are participating in Operation Christmas Child right now.  They're handing out boxes and encouraging kids and families to fill them up for children around the world.  You can read all about this ministry from Samaritan's Purse.  It's incredible!

This is our fourth or fifth year filling boxes and it just keeps getting better!

The kids are old enough to shop with me to pick out their items and really understand the spirit and joy of giving for the holidays.  They were THRILLED to go shopping.  They would find fun things and ask for me to buy them one and one for their boxes.  I just reminded them a time or two that our shopping trip was for other children this time.

We filled two girl boxes and one boy box this year.  We try to come up with a variety of items that were practical, fun and special.  It was sweet to see the kids picking out their favorite animals and toys for the boxes they were sending.

The kids picked out holiday stuffed animals, squishies and tons of little toys to include in their boxes.

We did picture matching games, hygiene items and craft supplies.

We fit about 30 different items in each box.  Here are the items that went into my box.  We tried some new things this year:
kid flossers
spiral notebooks with crayons and markers
Wikki Stix
Ziploc bags with beads and string to make their own necklaces & bracelets
A pair of littel dolls
A washcloth
Christmas themed items.

We found these fun spoon & fork sets at Dollar Tree.  They snap together and are really sturdy.

Fletcher's boy box.  We tried to pack them so that the WOW ITEMS were on top.

Olive's box.  She went through her Hatchimal collection and grabbed a handful to donate to her box and mine.  I love seeing her be generous all on her own.

 My box.

We dropped these off at church yesterday.  I always refresh myself on the rules of what to and what not to pack so that our boxes are in compliance.  OCC asks that you donate $9 per box to cover shipping and processing, but it is not a requirement.  We opted to pay for this, but not worry about tracking our boxes.  I think it would be really fun if my kids were older to track the boxes and know where they are going.  That way you could pray more specifically for the children and communities receiving these blessings for Christmas.

Have you ever filled boxes for Operation Christmas Child?