Dare I say .... Christmas. What are your plans for your Daycare Xmas Party?

[mimi]

Mustbenuts, what a wonderful idea. How did you go about finding a family. Is there a specific agency you went through?

[BrightEyes]

Oh November 2nd is not too early to bring up Christmas. Neither is November 1st haha. As soon as November hits I am in Christmas mode!! Last night I watched 2 Christmas movies in warm winter PJs and curled up on the couch to kick off the season.............. .................... lol!

[mustbenuts]

Mustbenuts, what a wonderful idea. How did you go about finding a family. Is there a specific agency you went through?

We have a local volunteer group that organizes it every year for the city. Families in need register with them and then I just emailed them, said we could take a family of 4 or 5 people and they gave me their info, kids ages etc. If you wanted to do something similar, try contacting your local salvation army or welfare agency to see if there is something similar. It's a great way to give back and show the little ones that Christmas is about more than getting presents.

[playfelt]

Our church has what they call an Angel tree and each angel on the tree has the name of a family, the ages and ideas of what the children like. Some shopping centres have had a similar thing in the past. Contacting any church in your area and speaking to the minister and they will be familiar with what programs are available since they would be referring people in need to them or they may know of a family within their congregation that has needs which would be someone local in the neighbourhood.

I have done operation shoebox with the daycare before where we collected donations of things and made up boxes to be sent overseas - things like small toys, clothes, socks, toothbrush, soap, basic necessities and it was a good way to remind kids and parents that not everyone has the things we take for granted.

[bright sparks]

Forgot to add that a big hit last year was that my daycare families and I adopted a local family fo Christmas Sharing. After getting agreement from all of them that they wanted to participate ( I didn't want anyone to feel like it was a burden pushed on them), I signed us up for a family in need and assigned each family some food to bring and told them the ages of the children in case they wanted to donate anything extra. They were all very generous and brought the food they were supposed to plus more, and also donated gift cards from Walmart and Toysrus. The dc kids were excited to see the donation box filling up.When my husband and I dropped it off the family was so thankful. It all went very well and I hadn't even thought about it until this thread came along and made me think about Christmas and how I need to set this up again, so Thanks!

This sounds wonderful!! Is there any chance you could give me the information. I think my own kids would also benefit from making this part of our family traditions at Xmas time.

[bright sparks]

Oh November 2nd is not too early to bring up Christmas. Neither is November 1st haha. As soon as November hits I am in Christmas mode!! Last night I watched 2 Christmas movies in warm winter PJs and curled up on the couch to kick off the season.............. .................... lol!

I am itching to wathc Xmas movies but am restraining myself. I absolutly love Xmas. The kiddies do so much in the month of December, the rest of the year must feel so inadequate lolol

[Momof4]

Thank you to the ladies who told us about adopting or helping a family in need at Christmas. I am going to type a letter to my daycare parents right now! What a wonderful way to help children learn about the value of giving at Christmas and all year round.

[BrightEyes]

Thank you to the ladies who told us about adopting or helping a family in need at Christmas. I am going to type a letter to my daycare parents right now! What a wonderful way to help children learn about the value of giving at Christmas and all year round.

I agree with Momof4, definitely a wonderful way to help children learn about the value of giving at Christmas and all year round!

[bright sparks]

That is a great idea which I am definitely going to look into, but I'd love to hear from all the people who have commented on this but not said what they do for Xmas parties. Sorry to bump you back on topic as your comments are great, but this isn't so much about giving a gift, but more coming together with the children and their families and having the opportunity for parents to interact in activities and Xmas fun, not the giving of gifts. Looking forward to hearing others fun party ideas. Thanks

[Momof4]

I already talked about my Christmas parties but I don't involve the parents, just the children brightsparks. To involve the parents that would mean I would have to entertain them after work and I don't want to do that.