My Food Storage Deals: Christmas Tradition

Christmas Tradition

>> Monday, November 16, 2009


How many of you get overwhelmed by the daunting task of doing neighborhood Christmas gifts? I remember a few years back needing to put together over 30 gifts for neighbors. Keeping track of who brought what, and what I brought people, became a time consuming part of the holiday season. Four years ago a few of my friends got together and we decided to put the money we used on neighborhood gifts towards a good cause. We wanted to come up with a way to cut down on the time and money spent on these neighborhood gifts. Although they are a wonderful way to show your neighbors you care, it can create a headache and unnecessary expense for many families (especially in today's economy!) So..if your neighborhood needs a new tradition, give our 'Christmas Neighborhood Drive' a try. All it takes is someone to make copies of the flier, and a few people to hand the fliers out (we use the scouts or young girls in the neighborhood to do the passing out--a great service project)!

What does our neighborhood do? We have put together several different drives, but the most popular drive has been the food drive. Most everyone has food in their pantries and food storage (another great reason to have food storage!), so it is easy to put together bags of food and donate them to the neighborhood food drive (or cash). We put together a small flier that explains where to drop off the food and encourages the neighbors to put the flier in their window so people know they donated to the food drive in lieu of doing neighborhood gifts. (If you would like a copy of the flier to hand out in your neighborhood, email me and I can send it to you Shandra@dealstomeals.com)

Save money, do something for someone else, and make your holiday season a little less stressful!

**Another added bonus to this service project--LESS treats brought to the door, meaning a few LESS pounds gained each holiday season :)

5 comments:

onlymehere November 17, 2009 at 7:02 AM  

Our old Bishop (he'd laugh if he saw I called him "old!")asked us to all donate to good causes rather than doing neighbor gifts. Usually the Young Women sponsor a Sub for Santa project through our local Sub for Santa program. It's been great fun and a wonderful way to get the holiday spirit. I love this food pantry idea also. Everyone needs to eat and how wonderful to ease a parents burden of seeing their child hungry.

Margo November 17, 2009 at 8:12 AM  

What a great idea I definitely want to use that idea for our neighborhood gifts. Food drive is the way to go especially in this economy. Can you please send me your flier here is my email margonui@comcast.net Thank You.

Anonymous November 19, 2009 at 5:57 PM  

Our neighborhood has just organized this same type of tradition this season, in our neighborhood there is a couple expecting triplets so we will be donating money for diapers and formula at a get together with treats to share and decide what next years charity will be.

Deborah Raymond November 21, 2009 at 10:04 AM  

Many years ago my family all decided that there were others in the world who needed more than we did so instead of giving gifts to aunts, uncles and cousins 9even though it had been a name-draw) we've been using what we would have spent on that for others... quilts for the humanitarian center, Santa for a needy family, etc. This year we are all donating to an Eagle Scout project for The Christmas Box House... Thanks for you idea to carry into neighborhoods as well!

Anonymous November 25, 2009 at 9:20 PM  

Just thought I'd pass along a tidbit of info...the food bank can do more with a cash donation than actual canned food, so it seems more beneficial to donate cash instead of canned goods (they can stretch your $1 dollar donation into like $7-8 dollars!!). That was news to me! I'll be donating cash this year instead of cans from my food storage (easier than replacing the cans and better for the food bank!!)

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