It’s that time of year again! Operation Christmas Child is one of my very favorite ways to give back & ensure that children all over the world have a Christmas gift to open. For well over a decade, packing shoe boxes during the holidays has been one of my favorite traditions, and I highly encourage you to participate, too!

“Since 1993, more than 100 million boys and girls in over 130 countries have experienced God’s love through the power of simple shoebox gifts from Operation Christmas Child. Samaritan’s Purse works with local churches and ministry partners to deliver the gifts and share the life-changing Good News of Jesus Christ.” (straight from the Samaritan’s Purse website)

National Collection Week for shoe boxes is November 18-25. I hosted a Shoe Box Packing & Wrapping party with my friends this weekend, so that we could all get together to stuff/pack/wrap our shoe boxes & have a dinner party!

One of the biggest processing centers for all of these millions of shoe boxes is in Charlotte, North Carolina, where I’m from. My youth group used to volunteer at this processing center each Christmastime, ensuring that each boxes was fully stuffed with gifts and passing inspection. Volunteering at the processing center was one of my favorite memories of the holidays back in high school, and it leaves such an impression to see a massive warehouse stuffed to the brim with countless shoe boxes filled with Christmas gifts for children all over the world!

Here is our little stuffing/wrapping party for Operation Christmas Child! Such fun.

Here are a couple older pictures I dug up from a couple years ago, in which my friends and I wrapped up several Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes!

What are your favorite ways to give back during the holiday season?