This year our family thought it would be fun to invite a bunch of friends over for an Operation Christmas Child shoebox packing party. While it’s definitely fun to pack the boxes as a family, we wanted to introduce more people to the shoebox ministry of Samaritan’s Purse ~ and have even more fun with all of our friends around.

Are you interested in hosting a packing party of your own? Here are a few tips and a printable to help get you started! There’s still time to have one, because shoebox collection week is November 12-19th this year {2012}.

1. Order Resource Materials from Samaritan’s Purse

Samaritan’s Purse has put together some promotional materials to help you share about the ministry of Operation Christmas Child. We ordered one of their Party Packs that includes a hosting guide, poster, logo stickers, coloring activity pages, brochures and more.

2. Pick a Date and Plan for Your Shoebox Packing Party

We have homeschool and non-homeschool friends, so we actually picked two afternoons to host our packing parties. We’re planning on a 2-3 hour timeframe to give us time to pack the boxes, decorate the boxes, write letters, watch a video clip, and put together a few crafts. Decide what you want to include during your party {click on the graphic above to see what we said to our friends}.

We asked our friends to 1) choose how many shoeboxes they were going to pack, 2) pick the gender and age range for their box, 3) go shopping for the gifts, 4) join our party to wrap and pray together and 5) include a check for the $7 to cover s/h. We’ll have boxes on hand {unless they would prefer to pack their box in a clear Sterlite shoe box} and plenty of rubber bands to hold the boxes together.

There will be 4 different stations set up at our party:

1. A place to decorate our boxes {wrapping paper and tape}
2. An area to write and color a letter to put in our shoebox
3. A craft area to make a bracelet and/or puppet for the box
4. A table to pack our boxes and get them ready to send off

3. Send Out Your Party Invitations

Be sure to download a copy of the editable Operation Christmas Child Shoebox Party Invitation to make it a little easier for you! The blue fields are editable {using Adobe Reader} and then you can print them out to hand out. There is room on the back to let your guests know what they need to bring and what you’ll be doing together at the party.

4. Find a Fun Craft to Make at Your Packing Party

In addition to the things that we’re buying to pack in our shoeboxes, all of the kids attending our party will also be making crafts to send along. After some searching online, we found some fun {and inexpensive for large groups!} crafts to work on.

Our craft list includes finger puppets {tutorial at Sidetracked Sara} and also some beaded friendship bracelets {the kids will design their own}. You can also find some fun craft ideas to make on the Operation Christmas Child Pinterest Boards.

Links to Get You Started Planning Your Shoebox Party

Here are a few helpful links {all in one place} to get you started planning your party.

• Order resource materials from Samaritan’s Purse
• Operation Christmas Child Shoebox Party Invitation
• Shoebox Labels and Packing Guide
• Coloring Page and Letter for shoeboxes
• Handmade gifts for shoeboxes {ideas from Pinterest}
• Shoebox drop-off locations

100 Shoebox Ideas for Girls

100 Shoebox Ideas for Boys

Have fun!! I’ll be sharing an update and pictures with you all after our first packing party this Saturday. Hopefully I’m remember everything! If you are blogging and sharing about Operation Christmas Child, be sure to link up below with us:

Disclosure: I am a member of the iHomeschool Network’s Samaritan’s Purse Blogger Team and voluntarily writing about this ministry. All posts are my own thoughts and do not necessarily reflect the views of Samaritan’s Purse. I am not an employee, agent, or contractor of Samaritan’s Purse.

Starting in August, Christmas decorations started popping up all over the place. Am I the only one who wonders when Christmas decorations will be put out before school supplies??

This year {instead of getting irritated that the push seems to get earlier each year}, I am using it as a reminder to start packing shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. The last few years our kids have participated in stuffing shoeboxes with fun toys and supplies to send off to children in other countries. While back to school shopping, we collected extra supplies to use when packing this year.

Operation Christmas Child

This 3 minute video is one of my favorite clips that reminds me again the WHY behind the boxes. Even though we may not know where the boxes are going, God knows what hands will be holding the boxes!

The shoeboxes can be filled with a variety of things {see the packing list ideas here}.  NOW is the time to start gathering items for the shoeboxes, because the collection week is November 12 -19, 2012. Go ahead and mark your calendar so it doesn’t sneak up on you! Find a nearby drop-off point by  OCC drop-off locations.

The Shoebox Challenge

This week our family is gathering shoeboxes, putting together resources and planning a big ol’ shoebox packing party with our local friends. Our goal? To pack 100 shoeboxes with our friends. We’re inviting families from our homeschool co-op, church friends – and planning a fun time of getting together to work on blessing children far away.

Our family will be putting together 6 boxes of those 100, so only 94 left to go! And local friends – be on the lookout for an invitation from our family to yours with a date and location soon! I’ll be sharing updates on our shoebox progress as we go along too!

Here are the five simple steps to partnering with the shoebox challenge:

1. Find an empty shoebox {or similar sized box}
2. Decide if you are putting together a box for a boy or a girl.
3. Fill your shoebox with gifts for that child.
4. Include a donation for $7 {to help cover the costs of shipping}.
5. Drop off your shoebox!

100 Shoebox Ideas for Girls

100 Shoebox Ideas for Boys

Want to join in with us? Even if you don’t have a group in your area, you can still put shoeboxes together and help spread the word about Operation Christmas Child. Write a post sharing about OCC and link it up below!

Disclosure: I am a member of the iHomeschool Network’s Samaritan’s Purse Blogger Team and voluntarily writing about this ministry. All posts are my own thoughts and do not necessarily reflect the views of Samaritan’s Purse. I am not an employee, agent, or contractor of Samaritan’s Purse.