The excitement and anticipation that the weeks before Christmas brings in a household with littles is undeniably magical and precious, however. it seems that every trip to the store and every commercial between cartoons pulls them deeper and deeper into a place of “all about me” and “I want.”
As a mom, how can I use the spirit of Christmas to point them to the needs of others, the joy of giving and sharing God’s love instead? After asking myself (and my group of girlfriends this question), the idea of the “Love & Serve Kid’s Christmas Party” was inspired.
Our family decided to gather our friends and spread God’s love and Christmas cheer together by making homemade cards that will be delivered to elderly shut-ins and nursing home residents in our community.
I set the date, identified a location that was COVID-friendly for gathering and invited our friends with a simple Facebook event. We asked our friends to bring their favorite holiday treat to share, but we provided the rest. I made several other kid-friendly snacks and provided apple cider, hot chocolate and bottled water.
I created 3 stand-up stations with a variety of art supplies, including card stock in several colors, fun holiday stickers, glitter glue and tacky glue, fuzzy poms, multi-colored jewels, decorative paper (patterns, plaid, metallic…etc), stamps./ink pads, plain scissors and decorative scissors, markers and crayons. I had some of these supplies on hand, but purchased some more seasonal items at Dollar Tree & Michaels.
The kids spent over an hour making card after card! Scribble, globs of glitter glue and many misspelled words — they were absolutely perfect! After their creative juices began wearing off, I had arranged for my mom to read several children’s books to them while they enjoyed a snack. Each book she chose emphasized giving and serving.
Each child left with a fun holiday headband or glasses and a treat bag, and hopefully most importantly, with a special memory and something to look forward to each year.
Later that week, my oldest son and I delivered the cards to a local nursing home. I pray each card, made with so much love, brought many smiles to each residents’ face and warmth to their hearts.
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