Christmas Gifts

[Marsha]

I have recently closed my store and have a shed full of new items, both for children and adults. (mostly women)

I am looking to "adopt" a family or two to send out some of these for this Christmas season. I would really like to find someone who won't have much of a Christmas.

I do a lot of selling on ebay to help defray shipping costs. You can check out some of my items at ebay under the screen name: bargain-looker

I have literally tons of more items to list. But I really want to send some to families that won't otherwise have much or anything under the tree.

Please private message me or email me.

Thanks,

Marsha

[Jenda]

Marsha, how do you search for a specific seller? The only way I know is to stumble onto one of their sales items and search from there. I tried looking, but don't know how to do it.

[Marsha]

Originally posted by Jenda@Nov 29 2004, 02:58 PM

Marsha, how do you search for a specific seller? The only way I know is to stumble onto one of their sales items and search from there. I tried looking, but don't know how to do it.

Jenda,

Go to Ebay, in the upper right corner there is "advanced search" click on that then to the left of the next page click on "Items by seller" then the next page put in the ID that you are looking for. It should bring up everything that that seller is selling currently.

Let me know if you still have problems and I can send you a link to one of my auctions then you can view them all from there.

Thanks,

Marsha

[Jenda]

Them were good directions, I found it. Thanks.

[Guest lt]

Marsha, I know a family that would truly love it, theyre budget is low...She is going to school and he is working...and its very tight for them, this last week they were robbed, it was so... sad. They should have robbed my house, these people didn't have much to begin with.

Laureltree

[Lindy]

46 hits on this post and only a few people know of a family who could use extra Christmas cheer?

Come on people......think think think! :)

[TXRed]

Most towns have some type of "helping hand" for Christmas. At least, all of the small towns around me do. Our town's program is sponsored by the local Police Department who know a lot of needy families. Also, the principal of the schools usually know who is in need of help. Some of the churches can also give you info on who could use your help. Don't forget to check with Goodwill or the Salvation Army also.

Here in our town: Starting the day after Thanksgiving, people who are in need sign up at the PD, and then, the week before Christmas, they come down to the City Auditorium to pick up a food basket and "shop" for toys for their children. Those who can help donate toys, money, and canned goods to the PD. On distribution day, those needing help who signed up for it, have a volunteer go with them while they pick out a couple of toys for each of their children. Then, other volunteers will wrap the presents. Toys are sorted by age and sex. There is no cost to the recipients and the only requirement is that they sign up at the PD and show proof of residency in our town. Last year, we gave out food baskets to about 68 older people on one day and toys and food to about 106 families on the second day.

In a neighboring town, the plan works where the parents drive up to the building and volunteers bring out food and toys to them. Volunteers pick out the toys instead of the parents.

If you would really like to sponsor an entire family, check with the local school or church first. They may also be able to play "go between" for you; so that you can "gift" anonymously if you'd like.

Another fun thing to do is to "pixie" someone. Wrap the gifts, put names on them, and put them on the recipients front porch in the middle of the night.

We sent a bunch of goodies to our son while he was on his mission; so that he and his companion could do some "pixieing". That year, we made everything we gave away, and our missionary son had a blast giving out the things we sent him which included hair barrettes, dolls, dream catchers, wooden toys, etc. We sent him food for himself, and he and his companion decided to give that away also to some needy people they were teaching. He said it was one of the best Christmas' he had ever had. Because of the fact that missionaries are in people's homes, they often know which families really need help.. . . . . . . . talk to them.

One of our family traditions for Christmas is to "gift" the missionaries with 12 things. We give all of the packages to them early in the month, and they are allowed to open one each night for 12 days before Christmas. Then, on Christmas Day, they come to our house for dinner, and the final present. The 12 gifts are always unusual. Some years, the kids have wrapped a stick of gum in several packages until it looked really big. Various items we've wrapped include: candy bars, boxes of cereal, containers of presweetened koolaide, boxes of pancake mix & bottles of syrup, jello, pudding mix, cake mixes, cheesecake mixes, etc. We also include a few small toys or other items such as ties, balls, mini cars, yo yo's, or anything else that seems silly enough. The first set of missionaries that we did that with went straight to their apartment and put all the packages under the tree and then took a picture. Missionary A is put in charge of doling out Missionary B's gifts and vice versa. We try to wrap things differently so they can't tell exactly what is in each package, and we number them so they know which ones to open first.

Good luck and have fun!

[Lindy]

Those are some great idea there TXRed!

I know how the missionaries love the spirit of Christmas! I remember one year when I asked our "guys" if they could have anything for Christmas....what would they want. Food was one of the cherished items, socks was high on the list also. It's nice to see people remembering and helping missionaries thru the holidays, it must be rough on a lot of them.

[Vicky Hail]

Last year for Christmas day we had the privledge of having our missionaries for the whole day. They had the opportunity to email their families early in the month on where they would be and they brought any presents sent to them here and put them under our tree. It was absolutely awesome, Not only spiritually but as a family we grew. We got each of them a set of writing paper and matching envelopes and enough stamps to use on them, and an address book (to write their favorite families in) lol. It was nice to have a fuller house on Christmas morning and I am pretty sure that the missionaries enjoyed it also, especially when one of the elders had just came into the mission field Thanksgiving week and one of the sisters had arrived in our area the week before Christmas.

There is an organization in our area called "Heart House" they help throughout the year and not just on Christmas. They provide food, clothing, toys, even temporary shelter and will help a family get back on their feet and out on their own again by helping to find housing and pay a deposit and or first months rent. This might be the kind of organization you could check out in your local town to donate your items to.

Giving a list to the missionaries of what you have or asking them what families are in need is an awesome idea since they are the ones that have the most contact with the members.