Christmas Help for the Holidays

Guess what? It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go! I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet, but there's a few things that I always like to think about early when it comes to Christmas.

One of my favorite hymns has always been "Because I Have Been Given Much I too Must Give". It seems especially appropriate at Christmas time that our thoughts turn toward what we can do to share our many blessings at this time of year. Especially with the approaching holiday season - this starts to be in the forefront of my thoughts as we prepare for Christmas. One of our family's favorite Christmas traditions is to get involved in some way during the holidays and look for ways to be of service. Some of the things in which we've participated in the past have been Sub for Santa, a giving tree of some sort where you select individuals off of a Christmas Tree and then provide the Christmas item for that individual, Toys for Tots, or just adopting a family that we know has particular needs and doing what we can for them to brighten their Christmas season.

I've noticed with my family getting more spread out, married kids, college kids - we have to organize well in advance to be sure we can all get together to make it all happen. Dustin and Cami recently shared their thoughts and desires to be involved this year in this type of Christmas project. So I've been doing some research the last couple days to see what the community needs might be this year.

Maybe this list will provide some inspiration to all of you who have been looking, or deisre to get involved in a Christmas service project, but don't know where to look or where to start:

United Way of Utah County has several possibilities -
Sub for Santa - adopt a family for the Holidays. You can find all the guidelines here.

Angel Tree - select an ornament off the tree, buy the appropriate items and return to the Angel Tree office at University Mall by mid December.

Also, United Way in general you can do a search for various Christmas volunteer related services.

Provide blankets for "Santa Flight" Operation Linus. The blanket can be knitted, crocheted, quilted, tied or fleece. Consult the sight for further information.

Deliver Christmas to children in rural Utah - once the items are returned to the Angel / Giving tree, you can be the ones you deliver all the items to the various families.

Chain Breaker Foundation - Dec 2, new coats, new toys to Joan Shippen, for abused women & children - this is for the annual Christmas party - they would like everyone to receive something for Christmas. Also Joan is in my ward - so let me know if you'd like to help, I'll get you involved!

Many opportunities in Salt Lake County can be found at this website - volunteering with the Christmas Tree Festival, The Arc "Give a Gift" program, Road Home - Project Blanket, Blankets for the Homeless, Ronald McDonald House of Charities - small groups to provide meals for 40 people, kitchen provided - and many others.

I'm sure there are many more holiday needs out there. Feel free to share any needs that you are aware of by leaving your comments below. We're getting excited for Christmas! And getting excited to think that we can do something to make someone else's Christmas a little bit merrier and brighter this year. It seems like no matter how tough the times may get, we always seem to be blessed with something to share!