Operation Christmas Child

[LaMarschallin]

Picked up my box for this at church today.
Link if anyone is wondering what I'm on about:

www.samaritans-purse.org.uk/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/

I asked our coordinator what was the category that got fewest donations and she reckons that, locally at least, it's boys aged 10-14.

It seems to make most sense to fill a box for that category, but... help required please!

I'm at that awkward age: my children (girls) and those of most of my friends and family are grown up but no grandchildren yet.
There's the odd younger boy (oldest 5) around, but I'd really appreciate some ideas.

Suggestions are: a quality toy, with other "fun toys, hygiene items and school supplies".

We can't send:
Clothing other than hats, scarves and gloves;
War-related items such as toy guns/knives, military figures;
Seeds;
Sweets, chocolate or food items;
Toothpaste, lotions or liquids, including bubbles;
Medicines;
Hand-made stuffed toys;
Playing cards of the 4 suit variety;
Religious or political literature;
Sharp or fragile items;
Books with mainly words.

Ideas very welcome!

I donate frequently through work, think the most boxes i did one year was 20. Always check the what can and cant be acceptee lists as they change often. The operation christmas child site has a download with recommended gifts for age categories.and the older boys category is definitely under provided for! I put in things like:

Stationary including calculators and notebooks
Diy items within the accepted category
Drawstring bags
Sunglasses
Foot ball stickers/trade cards
Lego/mechanno type stuff
If you put in a drinks bottle you can fill it with stationary, makes more room!
Accepted toiletries
Bandanas (not sure if still ok?)
In the past you could put in sweets within a certain sell by date if you sealed it separately and they weren't likely to melt like candy canes, not sure if still can.
The beaded/leather type bracelets you can get from places like primark.
Small surprise action figures such as the marvel/dc kind of blind bag toys
I would write a xmas card as well and stick it to the lid, I'd put xmas themed stickers in for younger ages.

The playing cards thing if I recall is because in some countries it is illegal to gamble and cards could be potentially used for that and/or local gang activity, so it's to try and prevent that particularly among the teen categories.

@cherryrainbow have you read the full thread?

Why do you do it @Cherryrainbow? Are you a homophobic evangelist?

The beaded/leather type bracelets you can get from places like primark.

Nothing says Xmas like using tat made by exploited children in deprived countries to forcefully convert other children in deprived countries to a homophobic, right wing religion.

Glad other posters have beat me to it! This organisation have been widely discredited and should be avoided like the plague.

OP you sound lovely and there are loads of other causes which will really appreciate your generosity

@ticking I was going to share the article on what they do on the school page but didn't and mentioned it to a teacher but got a shoulder shrug of "its for a good cause" the school is a faith school and I have made the article known to as many mums as I can. It's shocking the lengths operation shoebox go to

In London, the Met police run a scheme where you just drop off unwrapped presents at your nearest police station.

Many thanks again to everyone who's posted here. Especially since, as I've learned, it's a regular Christmas chestnut (roasted, in both senses of the word ) - apologies as I wasn't on MN before this spring.

As you will have read, I'd not come across this before and, as it was presented as a Good Thing at church, I totally took it at face value.

I have followed the links and done some other research and plan to discuss it with the people organising it next time I see them. As far as I know, it's the first time they've been involved with it too.

It's a very standard C of E type church, not evangelical in nature, so we have nice old fashioned hymns , traditional services and squabbles about the flowers and the tea rota so I'm sure most people there will be as ignorant about this as I was.

Thanks for the suggestions of alternative ways to donate (I can suggest these at church too) and, also, thanks to those who suggested gift ideas in good faith - changing the charity doesn't mean they're not still useful and appreciated.

If anyone wants a "copy-paste" this is what I sent to the head . The article I link to is slightly on the old side now, but still relevant.

{
Dear

I thought I would take time this year to write in about this initiative. I have never supported this in all my time at the school, but feel it is time to point out some of the issues.

I personally believe Samaritan's Purse is a very questionable organisation have been proven to use the shoe boxes to introduce evangelical Christian beliefs to areas which currently are not Christian in faith. They are also a very homophobic organisation at their roots with questionable attitudes to Islam and Muslim immigration.

You can find one of the more reasoned articles here describing the issues. humanistlife.org.uk/2015/10/14/why-parents-shouldnt-support-operation-christmas-child/

I would be very happy put my time to find an alternative for next year which is for a less controversial organisation. }

I should just say that despite extensive research I didn't find an alternative, the best one I found was www.marysmeals.org.uk/get-involved/campaigns/the-backpack-project but needed items delivered to Scotland. If you are in Scotland it would be a good one.

Good idea to share letters. Here is what I sent to the scouts last year:

I’m hugely supportive of your efforts to get the scouts to work closely with local churches/charities. But I have significant concerns about this collaboration with Samaritans Purse. This US based organisation has some deeply upsetting views that don’t align well with Scouting’s core values. To give just one example, here is an article about their President’s (Franklin Graham) views on including gay members within the Boy Scouts:
https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-chapman/rev-graham-all-churches-should-pull-out-boy-scouts-organizationn_

The SP leadership have equally unpleasant views on Islam.

Other concerns about the methods used by this organisation are well articulated on the humanist website who also suggest alternative less problematic charities who run similar shoebox schemes:
https://humanism.org.uk/2017/10/19/humanists-uk-warns-schools-and-parents-about-evangelical-christmas-shoebox-appeal//_

I’m happy to discuss any of these issues if that would be helpful.

I'm an open minded atheist who would have trouble explaining her sexual history if she was homophobic lol. I've donated in the past due to the nature of how my workplace does charity raising throughout the year and at Xmas time (they've generally done Mr x appeal and operation xmas child) generally it was promoted as a here help needy kids kind of way. I'll look into the information on other websites because it'll be better to read the articles and get reasonable information and sources, than deal with name calling hyperbolic shambles on a forum. you know you can make your point without acting like a (fill in the blanks).

There were loads of links posted on the thread which you ignored @Cherryrainbow. Instead you gave a list of what you put in the boxes, together with a little pat on the back to yourself for how many boxes you've filled.

I think my question was quite fair in the circumstances. Delighted to hear you're not, and perhaps you can have a word with whoever organises them at your workplace. It wouldn't sit well with the company values of anywhere I've worked.

There are so many local charities that would appreciate the help.
Lots of local churches to me participate in the Notts Children's toy appeal. Basically children who are in care, referred through sure start centres, social workers or other charities get a really lovely gift from the appeal. You know it's going back directly into the community.

My dds school still does Samaritans purse and despite being sent information it won't stop. But I have noticed less and less children completing the boxes now.

Would rather stick pins in my eyes than support this charity . Thousand of other charity’s I could use before this one .

Our school have contacted our local homeless charity, which is also a food bank to ask them what would be most beneficial. Weve done shoeboxes for them for the last few years. In it we put things like,
Toiletries, sweets, hot drink sachets, gloves, etc. We try to do the reverse advent calendar too, our one have just released their list for this year.
The children deliver the boxes themselves and see some of the work they do.
I don't really support the toy drives that are often done, my son went to a routine hospital appt once in December and was told to go into a room which had shelves of presents, I'm not sure that's the target group I've bought for in the past.

Well done op.
Haven't touched it for many years once I found out what they were using the boxes for and the vile views of their 'leader'.
People need to realise just how awful these people are.

Cherry it's really easy to find out just how nasty this 'charity'and it's leaders are. Many states in USA have banned these boxes.

Being 'open minded' doesn't mean turning a blind eye to the abuse or taking advantage of vulnerable people, racism, homophobia' bigotry and mysogeny. And don't get me started on their views on the shoe boxes being their 'best tool ever' to convert people of different religions to their own skewed version of Christianity.

There's a lot of places organising better schemes.

Our secondary school donates them to a local homeless charity. Our local radio station and supermarket do gift drives as do the Met police. A local homeless charity has an Amazon wish list and I know that John Lewis do a gift for Shelter. Local food banks would also benefit from donations. With people prepping for Brexit I fear low stock levels soon.

As others have pointed out the sending a box abroad model is not considered positive any more because of the ethics (pushing Christianity angle) and environmental issues. If you want money to go abroad then there are charities who collect for specific tragedies or groups.

The boxes for the homeless that my kids schools collect advise a flannel, socks, toiletries and something edible. They ask for toiletries aimed at different age groups but especially teenage boys who are most forgotten by people who make boxes. Toiletries - razors, lip balm, toothbrush, toothpaste, moisturiser, deodorant, hand sanitizer...

I found some travel mugs/flasks on sale as Primark recently so plan to add those. I've seen our local Costa, Greggs and McDonalds distributing hot water to people near their stores and a travel mug will hopefully stay hotter for longer than takeaway cups.

Angel Tree is another good charity to support at this time of the year. Incarcerated parents fill in a form and Angel tree will buy and post a gift of £10-15 value on their behalf to their children. On the gift will have a hand written note from the parent to the child.

Dc have come home with a rotary shoebox leaflet, it states it does not send any religious or political affiliation with the boxes. I’m not sure what to do.

Has anyone mentioned the racism, or the blatant disrespect towards other faiths, of SP? This was what I highlighted in an email to the Head of DS’s very multi-cultural school — to her credit, she stopped it immediately, and said she had ‘inherited’ it from a previous vicar and blamed herself for not doing the research

That's very sweet to organise a gift with handwritten note from a parent in jail. 😢 I'm not being a softie and discounting the pain caused to the victims of crime but the children of offenders are also victims.

OP Have you considered doing a reverse advent for a Food bank? If you google you'll
see a lot of suggestions like this.

If 500 people complete the challenge, that's 12,500 items collected for people in need.