We look forward to a lot of family activities during the holidays, but I think I can safely say that the one that we all look forward to the most is our annual trip to Walmart to help fill their donations box up with toys for the needy. Just for fun, you can check out our trips from 2010 and 2012 — can’t believe how much my kiddos have grown!
I know this is a tough year for many of you, and we’ve had our share of tough times and holiday seasons where we were penny-pinching to the extreme, too. Somehow we’ve always managed to minimize the effect on our kids, while still blessing others with any little bit we had left over, and I’m grateful for that. The past few years have been good to us though, which means we’ve had more room in our budget for giving, and this year has been no exception.
Tuesday evening, after picking our first real Christmas tree ever at a local greenhouse, we decided to swing by Walmart to let the kids do a little shopping. Earlier this month Walmart had given me a $100 gift card to spend as I pleased, but the kids were super surprised and excited when I shared with them that we were going to match the gift card as a family, giving them each $40 to spend on the gifts of their choice for the less fortunate children in our area.
So my girls and I hit the “girly” aisles, and my husband took the boys to shop the more rough and tumble boys’ aisles. After a lot of calculations and discussion, we all met up back in the holiday department with our choices to snap a quick photo. I think they did a fantastic job of picking out a variety of really nice toys, and while we discovered that someone *may* have miscalculated their purchase at checkout, I was more than happy to pick up the difference.
After checking out, the kids unloaded the cart into the Helping Hand Toy Box near the entrance of our store. This donation box is earmarked for the local Helping Hand Toy Drive, sponsored by Walmart, The Columbus Dispatch, The Salvation Army, 92.3 WCOL, and WBNS-10-TV.
Other stores across the U.S. are participating in the Fill The Truck promotion, so you may see a big red box in the front of your store. Whatever program your store is participating in, it’s a great way to give a little something extra to charity while you’re doing your regular shopping!
Leave a Reply