39 replies to this topic

[dmmiller]

Thanks for all the ideas everyone. So many good ones to choose from.

[Turtle Mommy]

I used to have a boss that would give out a dinner basket every year to the employees along with our Christmas bonus. He told a story of how he dropped off one of the employees one year on Christmas Eve. The gentleman forgot something in the car so he went to take it in to him. When he got inside he saw bare cabinets and found that the family would not be having a Christmas dinner the next day. He went out and bought all of the fixings for dinner the next day.

Ever since he has always given out a basket of food to every single employee to ensure that they would have food to eat for Christmas. Every year he got dozens of large apple baskets and filled them to the top. There was corn, dumplings, chicken broth, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, cans of all kinds of veggies, pumpkin for pies, crust, macaroni and cheese, stuffing, potatoes, and a giant turkey in the middle. Oh he even made sure there was butter, salt, pepper, and anything else you might possibly need to make a wonderful Christmas dinner.

I think what you are doing is wonderful. Just make sure to get it to them early enough that it eases some of their worry. God Bless You. This is truly the reason for the season.

Your old boss sounds like my dh. We did that one year for a few of our guys that just started with dh's company and were struggling. We got them GC for our local grocery store so we made sure they had an awesome Thanksgiving one year. It warms my heart that he did that.

I also think what you are doing is wonderful. What about a GC so they can pick what they think the kids would like.

[Giggles]

If you work, mention the situation to a few of your co-workers. I bet they would love to pitch in and help you. Maybe the Salvation Army could also help. Not sure where they get their lists from, but you could call. Also check with United Way and ask them who you can contact to help them out. I also know that when my husband worked for the Post Office, they looked for families to help out. They do a big food drive either in Nov. or Dec. Another thought is to ask a church to adopt them. Church people love to help out and everyone loves to give at this time of year. (please don't be offended anyone, I mean that statement in the best way.) Nothing is better than helping someone else. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[trbarginhunter]

I think this is wonderful...I would tend to keep it a secret even from my kids, just so the word doesn't get around and cause any problems. I've done the gift certs (in advance so they can be used for shopping) and food basket with an additional gift cert for the perishable items. Check Target clearance, CVS, etc for those small stocking stuffer items (I just bought some school supplies at 90% at CVS--and you know the boys will need more of those items by Christmas). I think you are wonderful for thinking of this! Have fun with it!

[lilquiet]

For the kids a gift card to five below would be good. Hopefully there's one in your area. For the parents I think anytype of gift card would be greatly appreciated. If you shop with mypoints.com you can earn free gift cards.

[satidwell]

You could print a priority mail label online and that would come with a free delivery confirmation # so you could track the package. You can set the "from" up to be from anyone, anywhere. So it could be from "santa claus" at the "north pole" or whatever you want to do.... and you can track it with the number to be sure it was delivered. ONly 4.60 but peace of mind if you want to be sure.

Another option would be to simply get someone to pay a teenager 5.00 or so to put on an elf hat and knock on the door and hand it to them personally. Make sure it's someone that they don't know and if they ask who it's from, have the "elf" say "why, santa of course"

GREAT IDEA!!!

[Illinoismom]

I think I would hire some one to play Santa and deliver on Christmas Eve day, Would be special and they wouldn't know where it came from

[Cheri17]

I think you guys are wonderful.have you considered placing their name with an agency that helps families in need at christmas. my daughter belongs to one where they pick a family and buy 1 gift for each person,in the family.There are agencies that keep it all hush hush.i don't know where your from ,but maybe do a web search.you could still do your basket,cause its a great idea.good luck and god bless. its so nice to know there are still nice people in this world.

[vsa3janes]

How kind of you to do this for your friends. I was out of work 11 month and then another 8 and none of my friends thought of anything like this. The worse feeling as a parent is to not be able to give to your kids. If you are giving gift certificates to be used on the kids it would be nice if they could arrive in time for the parents to shop and have something under the tree for Christmas. Probably the same thing for food. You could deliver the basket/box the week before with a gift cert for perishable. Then that would take the stress off of them worrying where the food would come from. I think giving it as a surprise is a great idea then they won't feel ackward accepting it.

[coleman4905]

Board games are nice,..plus the baskets,..i'm a basket giver,..haha WHen I was little we had cousins on my dads side who always had hard times making ends meet so every year we went with my parents and made a day of going to get things for the kids,..at that time we didnt know it was for the cousins, i didn't find out till I was in high school. My mom never wanted us to know so the feelings wouldnt be funny,..anyways we enjoyed shopping for them, made us feel good,..