Just a few weeks ago, my youngest and I were having one of those rare moments alone in the car, and she said to me, “I think envy is the hardest sin of all. It just feels like I see things all the time that other people have, and it’s so easy to want them for myself.”

She’s not alone in this; whether it’s a house with one more bedroom, a new refrigerator—seriously, did you know they now come with a Keurig in the door?!?—or a pair of size-3 sparkly pink tennis shoes, I believe most of us struggle (at least on occasion and to some extent) with contentment. We live in a time when it can be hard not to envy the blessings of others, even while having so much ourselves.

This is one reason why Operation Christmas Child, an annual ministry of the Samaritan’s Purse relief organization, has become so near and dear to my heart. It is, quite simply, a tangible exercise in teaching our children—and ourselves—the joy of giving instead of receiving. Samaritan’s Purse partners with local churches or other Christian ministries around the world, bringing gifts to children whose lives have been affected by poverty, famine, disease, natural disasters, war, and ethnic or religious persecution. Distribution of Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes provides an opportunity to share the Gospel and to show these children God’s love. The ministry celebrates its 25th year in 2018, and in that time, OCC has distributed over 157 million boxes of gifts in 160 countries worldwide.

In early November, long before our family begins unpacking decorations and preheating the oven for holiday baking, the time arrives for this particular favorite tradition. The familiar winged-box logo starts to show up on posters at church, in inboxes and Facebook feeds, signaling that it’s almost time to assemble this year’s shoeboxes.

While this is a great service project for a Sunday School class, scouting troop, or homeschool co-op, I have always loved letting our kids work together to pick out enough items to each fill their own. And whenever I’ve taken them on a shoebox shopping trip, something wholly remarkable happens: we usually leave the store(s) without them asking for anything for themselves. Not one single thing!

While my children learned long ago that begging their way through a store is the surest way to NOT take home today’s object of affection, it’s a rare shopping trip when one of them doesn’t ask for something—whether that happens in the cereal aisle or among the Xbox games. So it’s a memorable event (at least, for me!) when they don’t even ask.

So, where do you begin?

First, you’ll need a box. You can use any sturdy shoebox you have sitting around the house, but a standard-size box is best. Very large ones (like those that come with boots) take up a lot of room during shipping, and it’s just nicer if all the children receiving them get a box of similar size.

My recommendation: consider using a plastic shoe storage box (6-7 quart capacity is common). They’re more durable than cardboard, won’t be as affected by moisture and extreme heat/cold, and offer ready-made storage for a child’s treasures. Avoid cheap, brittle plastics; higher quality brands (like Rubbermaid® or Sterilite®) will hold up better than dollar-store boxes. Volunteers at the OCC distribution center will tape boxes shut to prevent the top coming off, so there’s no need for latches that might eventually break anyway. A flat, snap-on lid is best.

Operation Christmas Child also sells pre-printed boxes at a very reasonable cost. They are available in both cardboard and plastic versions, sold in packs of 50 and 12, respectively.

Next, you’ll want to start collecting items for your box. Operation Christmas Child delivers shoeboxes to boys and girls between ages 2 and 14. You’ll need to pick one of the following categories as the recipient:I personally have found that my kids usually enjoy picking out items for someone of their same gender, but your family might want to do something different.

Let’s start with the obvious: you don’t want to squander your shoebox gift budget, so you need to be aware that some items are prohibited due to foreign customs regulations, difficulty in transporting them, safety, or other reasons. Boxes are checked by Samaritan’s Purse volunteers before they are shipped overseas, and—although most prohibited items are donated to other ministries, so they don’t technically go to waste—anything on the list below will be removed at the processing facility.

You should NOT include the following in your box:

• Used or damaged items. This includes gently-used clothing. Nothing you send should have been washed or worn previously. As far as damaged items: anything you wouldn’t give as a Christmas gift to someone you know, shouldn’t go in the box.
• Anything edible. This means no candy, no chocolate, no gum. You can’t send nuts or seeds (and this includes packets of seeds for planting, as well), trail mix, dried fruit, no fruit leather or other fruit/veggie snacks. Don’t send powdered drink mixes. No food or beverages, at all.
• Medications (including antibiotic ointments), medicinal herbs, or vitamin and mineral supplements.
• Liquids or lotions, including any bottled beverages, hand sanitizer, liquid soaps and body wash, shampoo, hand lotion, lip gloss, bottles of glue, pre-mixed paints, or anything else that could spill in the box. Packing them in a zipper bag doesn’t matter; they’ll be removed at the processing center, so please don’t include them.
• Toothpaste. As of 2017, toothpaste was no longer allowed due to customs regulations in some countries.
• Toy weapons or items with a war-related theme, including realistic toy guns (brightly-colored squirt guns are OK) or knives, tanks, soldiers, or military-inspired clothing—although camouflage patterns are permitted as long as children “can wear or use the items without looking like a soldier.” Accessories like wallets and socks are fine, as are items made of pink (or other color) camouflage.
• Any implement with a sharp blade, such as a pocket knife, multi-tool, or a saw.
• Matches … if there’s a male child living in your home, you already understand this.
• Anything in an aerosol can, including deodorant, body mist, Silly String and fake snow spray.
• Snowglobes, glass containers and mirrors (plastic mirrors, especially enclosed in a compact, are a good alternative to glass) or anything else fragile and likely to break. Remember, items in a shoebox will be traveling long distances and may be subject to some fairly extreme changes in temperature and altitude on the way to their destination, so it pays to err on the side of caution.

Now that you know what NOT to pack, let’s move on to what items are recommended. The Samaritan’s Purse website has a great list of suggestions, broken down by age and gender. If you’re packing a shoebox, that’s the first place you should check.

Here are some highlights, along with a few extra tips I’ve gleaned along the way:

• Wrapping paper can easily get damaged during handling, so keep that in mind before doing an elaborate gift wrap. If you still want to wrap your box, be sure to wrap the lid and the rest of the box separately. Shoeboxes must be opened at the processing center, so your pretty wrapping job won’t survive if the volunteers have to tear it open.
• Lining a plastic box with a good-sized piece of colorful fabric looks nice while hiding the contents, and after the gift is unpacked, the material can be used in countless ways. Check for remnants at Hobby Lobby (or use their weekly coupon to choose something special at 40% off).
• Consider removing bulky packaging when possible—remember, much of the world doesn’t have weekly trash pick-up!—and instead putting the items in zipper bags, which can be reused for storage. In fact, putting each item in a separate bag helps the children keep all their gifts contained. You can find bags with colorful designs on clearance after holidays like Valentine’s Day and Christmas, and save them to use for OCC.
• For items mounted on a card—Matchbox cars are a good example—you can save space by folding over the cardboard and securing it with a rubber band or two. Small boxes can also be wrapped with a rubber band, to assure they stay closed. (The rubber bands can be useful for the child who receives your gift, also.)
• Recommended for every box: toothbrushes, comb or hairbrush, washcloth, bar soap.
• Items with a strong odor (for example, some soaps) should be placed in a separate zipper bag. Double-bag them if possible to help prevent the fragrance from permeating everything in the shoebox.
• Consider putting washcloths and soap in a zipper bag together. Dark washcloths aren’t as likely to stain or discolor quickly. It’s worth paying a bit more for good quality washcloths, which will outlast two or three cheap cloths and take up less space in the box.
• A bulk pack of individually-wrapped soap can be split between multiple shoeboxes if it has a fairly mild fragrance that is suitable for both boys and girls. Ivory soap is inexpensive (about $.40 per bar in a bulk pack from Walmart), doesn’t have a strong smell, and the bars float so it’s hard to lose them while bathing! For girls, you might also include a few small perfumed soaps in pretty colors and shapes.
• Soccer balls (or others that can be thrown and kicked) are very popular for both boys and girls, but you don’t want one of them taking up most of a shoebox. Buy balls that can be deflated, and include a small manual air pump with extra needles.
• While coloring books can be fun, please try to avoid the “coloring and activity” variety with lots of word puzzles or other English text. There’s a good chance the child receiving it won’t be able to do the puzzles or read the words.
• TV and movie characters may be unfamiliar and in some cases even frightening … can you imagine a child seeing Batman or Spiderman for the first time without knowing the story? When you’re buying coloring books and toys, look for more universal themes—animals, flowers, transportation, people, etc.—instead of pop culture.
• Look for dolls that are dressed modestly and, if possible, choose dakers skin/hair/eyes instead of the blue-eyed blonde dolls with white skin that are so typical in the U.S.
  
• If you send anything that requires a battery, please be sure to include at least one (preferably 2 or 3) replacement sets. But do consider first: do you want to spend your budget on an item that may well be useless to the child when batteries eventually run out? Are there alternatives to the gift you had in mind—for example, a wind-up flashlight instead of one that needs batteries?
• School supplies (notebooks, pens, markers, crayons, pencils, scissors) are great. Be sure to include a manual pencil sharpener if you send pencils, and please, please don’t send writing instruments and crayons without supplying paper. I know, I complain all the time about the piles in our home, too … it’s easy to forget that not every child has an endless supply.
• Volunteers report that there are usually far fewer boxes for the 10-14 yr. range, and particularly for the boys that age. So if you’re undecided, please consider packing a box for boys and/or girls in the oldest age group!
• Think about including a short note and even a picture of your family, to personalize the gift for the boy or girl who receives it.

So … your family has shopped, bagged, folded, tucked, arranged and re-arranged, and now your shoebox is finally packed! What next?

Samaritan’s Purse asks donors to give $9 per shoebox help defray handling and transportation costs. Now, to be clear, this is a suggested donation. If you forget to include it (or just can’t afford $9 per box on top of the cost of the items inside), your shoebox won’t be chucked on the trash heap. However, that $9 goes a long way to helping with the costs of distributing shoeboxes all around the world. Not only that, but along with the items in the box, every boy and girl receives The Greatest Gift. This booklet, which is printed in more than 75 languages, shares 11 Bible stories and invites children to follow Christ. Your $9 helps pay the cost of giving one to every child!

In addition, many local church partners offer a 12-lesson discipleship program to the children who receive a shoebox. The Greatest Journey helps boys and girls understand salvation through faith in Christ and encourages them to follow Him, and opens the door for local churches to instruct and nurture them in their newfound faith.

If you submit the suggested $9 donation online, you’ll receive a printable Follow Your Box tracking label that can be affixed to your shoebox. Using this barcode, your box can be tracked as it travels internationally and is eventually distributed. (While you won’t know exactly who received your box, you will know where the recipient lives and this allows your family to pray more specifically for that child.)

The next step is turning in your shoebox so it can be distributed. This year’s National Collection Week is November 12-19, 2018. Many churches will accept shoeboxes during that week (and leading up to it) but if yours is not among them, you can find a list of drop-off locations on the Samaritan’s Purse website. Just be sure you get your box dropped off by the end of the week.Finally, if this is a tradition you want to continue each year, shopping year round will enable you to assemble stellar shoeboxes on a very small budget.

In late December, stores will start paring back their toy inventory to pre-Christmas levels, so it’s one of the best possible times to buy small toys: balls, toy cars, dolls that didn’t sell. You can also look for non-perishable Christmas items on clearance. A few of my favorites are: zipper bags with a Christmas theme; festive hair bows; holiday socks; seasonal notebooks, pencils and erasers; boxed sets of lip balm (check for an expiration date).

In January, lots of stores take advantage of New Year’s Resolution mania by featuring storage/organization items, so watch for sales on good quality plastic shoeboxes. Retailers will often have January white sales with major discounts on linens. This is a great time to buy good-quality washcloths for your OCC shoeboxes (Black Friday is another time to shop for these). Late in the month, stores in the warmer climates will start marking down seasonal winter items like stocking caps, gloves, and heavy socks.

In February, watch for those winter items; even those in the north will be clearing out cold-weather items (including winter clothing). Maybe you’d like to buy a few long sleeved t-shirts for next year’s boxes? Mid-month, check out the Valentine’s Day clearance items: pencils, erasers, stickers, heart-themed zipper bags, and stuffed animals are all fun additions to a shoebox.

In March – April, look for clearance items after Easter. You can pick up adorable stuffed animals for next to nothing—there will be pastel-colored chicks and bunnies all over the place! 

With Mother’s Day in May, watch for pretty stationery items (i.e., floral notebooks) after the holiday. Also, consider setting aside a bit of money this month to buy non-perishable items—like soap, band-aids, combs, brushes—that don’t necessarily go on sale often. Toward the end of the month, you can begin to watch for pre-Father’s Day sales on outdoor and camping products.

If you’re packing a box for an older boy, June means Father’s Day, which translates to discounts on tools, camping and fishing supplies, and the like. There will be some special deals for Dad, but prices may be even better later in the month, when the gift-giving rush is over and stores are clearing out items they stocked for Father’s Day. Might be a great time to find that wind-up flashlight, no?

At some point during the month of July, you are going to run across a fantastic sale on flip-flops. Why not pick up several cute, colorful pairs for next year’s shoeboxes (even if you buy them in red, white, and blue after the 4th)?

Toward the end of July and into August, the back-to-school sales will be in full force. Retailers will be begin marking down summer clothing, so watch for inexpensive shorts and tees. Essentials like socks and underwear are usually on sale as parents gear up for school. This is another time to watch for storage/organization sales to help you pick up plastic boxes at a discount. And the school supplies: pencils, pens, markers, scissors, glue sticks and notebooks will be priced lower than any other time of year! Grab an extra handful of those 25-cent boxes of crayons, while you’re at it.

In mid-to-late August (and stretching into early September), stores will be clearing out their seasonal summer items. This is the time to buy sunglasses, sidewalk chalk, beach balls and other warm-weather toys. In most areas of the country, you’ll probably find some summer clothing at deep discounts in September, too.

If you want to order pre-printed boxes from Samaritan’s Purse, get that done early in October so you can start packing your boxes. Five or six weeks before the collection deadline, you’ll want to start filling in the gaps for your shoebox. Don’t forget Hobby Lobby’s weekly coupon if you’d like to put together small sewing kits, buy spools of ribbon, or add extra items to your box over the course of several weeks.

I hope you’re inspired to add Operation Christmas Child to your family’s existing holiday traditions. But the most important way you can join in this ministry doesn’t involve shopping and packing gifts. It’s not giving financially. It isn’t volunteering to sort shoeboxes or coordinate a designated drop-off location at your church. No, the single most important thing you can do is pray—for the ministry opportunities created by these boxes, and for the children who receive them. Pray that we will see the Word of God increased and multiplied. Pray that the Lord would extend His kingdom and save the lost for His glory.

In Christian circles, we often hear the term “hands and feet of Jesus,” and I think most of us want our children to understand what it means to live and be His love in action. When they experience the joy of giving, it begins to change their outlook, teaching them to think of others before themselves, to be doers of the word and not hearers only. They are never too young to start.

 

Do you have favorite tips and tricks
for packing a shoebox?
Please share them in the comments below!

 

 

 

Sure, it’s still October …
but are you already overflowing with holiday spirit?
Read more of our favorite Christmas traditions!