Could It Be One of Our OCC Shoebox Flower Hair Clips?

Last fall at our Spur of The Moment Operation Christmas Child Shoebox Packing Party we included a couple dozen of these hibiscus hair clips that had been used earlier in the year as table decorations for a beach themed banquet for our AWANA workers.  With many of them we included a beaded necklace.

In April Operation Christmas Child shared this image on Facebook:

There is no way to know if this one of our hair clips -- but the smile would be the same on the little girls who did receive the ones we sent.  So I am thrilled to see this little girl enjoying hers!

You can check out more images of little ones with their shoebox gifts in our series Operation Christmas Child Shoebox Distribution Stories.

$50 Gift Card Blog Giveaway Win Turns into $161 of School Supplies for OCC Shoeboxes

I have decided to use blog giveaway wins as a way to fill more Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes.  I spend a little time each day, a few minutes here and there, to enter giveaways for products or gift cards that would work for tucking into a shoebox.  My first win was this $50 Visa Gift Card and two combination locks.

I received them on a Friday and on Saturday I shopped at Dollar General with three $5 off $25 coupons and lots of Hefty coupons.  Their crayons and 10 packs of pens

Beanie Baby Collections for Operation Christmas Child ~ Free Collection Poster

Beanie Babies are the perfect size and quality to tuck into shoebox gifts for Operation Christmas Child.  There are thousands around the states just tucked away whose owners don't know what to do with them.  Asking for donations of them for shoe boxes has been very successful for many packers.  My daughter found these at a Hospice thrift store for 25 cents each.  And we received the Avon ones in the image below from posting a sign.  We were thrilled as we include a stuffed animal in each OCC shoebox we pack.

Avon Full O' Beans babies -- received new in packages as a donation.

I made this image for a friend to use on her small business Facebook page.  I added her business name and address.  I wanted to share it here so if anyone was interested in using it they could.  You have my permission to save this image and use it for your own Operation Christmas Child collections if it would be of help to you. Just fill in your own personal information in the Deliver To box.

You can find a second collection poster, more suitable in size for printing here:  WANTED! Poster for Beanie Babies.

We've also designed other Operation Christmas Child Shoebox Packing Printables to help you collect or pack your shoeboxes.

An Email Received from a Shoe Box Kid!

If you have a been a reader of Simply Shoe Boxes for long you will remember last fall we put on a spur of the moment packing party with our AWANA kids at church.   We had them fill out these Operation Christmas Child forms as letters to put in their boxes.  Each form has sections to tell a little about yourself.

We included the church's address and an email address in case a child could write back.  This week we received the following email (apparently he was answering the questions that were on the form about himself just like the child who sent it did):

Goodmorning brandon.my name is erick m......I am 25 years.I live in

the Burundi in Afrika.I live in the Bujumbura city.in the city of

buyenzi commune.my favorite:thing to drink is sprint.when I have free

time I like to play football.I love jesus because he takes bad things

a way.I my family,I have:1 brother,5 sisters and 2 pets.GOd bless you

He says he is 25 years old, we are not sure if that is a mistake, if he is writing in response to a sibling's box or if he did get a box.  But we were thrilled to receive a reply to one of our boxes and can't wait to share it with the kids at church.

We've shared in this link Tips on Writing a Letter to Include in Your Operation Christmas Child Shoebox.