40 days and 40 Ways ...(to help) #34 Christmas

Nobody wants to think about Christmas in May. Including myself. But you can't very well think of charity without Christmas coming to mind. With that being said, I want to tell you about my all-time favorite Christmas charity!! I've been doing this charity since I was 17 (Yikes 10 years now!). My mom got us doing it in high school and I just loved the concept, so I've done it every year. This year I was able to help on a bigger scale by helping at the local contribution center as well as buying for the charity.

www.samaritanspurse.org

It's so easy, and it helps children around the world to have a Christmas!! You just grab a shoe box, fill it with little toys, games, clothes, soap, toothbrushes, etc. put a few bucks in for shipping (I think it was like $5 this year) and take it to your local distribution site (found at the website).

You don't have to run out and buy all that stuff either! When I was in college (and of course, broke) I would only eat happy meals when I got fast food. I saved up all the little toys and put them in the boxes. I got donations of crayons in boxes from Cracker Barrel and I also included boxes of soap, travel sized toothpaste and kids toothbrushes, and bought a pack of kids undies and socks. I put any free sample stuff I could get my hands on that they could use. I could usually fill about 3 or 4 boxes this way. I didn't have the money then to even include the shipping. They will accept the box without it (thank goodness), so now I give an extra monetary donation so that other poor college kids can give without worrying about the shipping money.

I thought posting this now might give you an idea of things to grab when you are at the dollar spot in Target or something so you could start a collection for when Christmas comes :)