Christmas donation boxes?

SummerRain

SummerRain

I dreamed that God would be forgiving.
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Okay so I wasn't sure where to put this...

So last year there was a collection of boxes of gifts for local poor families at Christmas time. I really enjoyed doing it, and remembering making similar boxes for "Operation Christmas child" at school planned to do that this year.

However then some googling told me that Samaritans purse (who run operation Christmas child) seem to have pretty shady ethics.

I found some other charities doing similar boxes for families and elderly people in eastern Europe, but by this point I was questioning the whole idea of sending boxes abroad anyway. Not because I don't like to give abroad, but because they all seem to be run by Christians trying to convert people to Christianity (and also, maybe they could do with something more useful than gifts? Although perhaps that's a bit pragmatic).

But I can't find the charity I donated to last year. I was wondering if anybody knew of similar things, or schemes, or even not-that-similar schemes, which you considered ethical? I wanted something more... personal I guess than just donating money.
 
I don't know of any schemes which aren't run by Christians. :(

I have heard that some people do Christmas box schemes to send to animals in rescue centres and I think I would be interested in doing one of those if I can find out more about it.

I'm actually going to be looking for some good box schemes so if I find any, I'll post about them here. :)
 
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Not quite what you're looking for but I know that the military forces out on operation over Xmas are allowed to receive 2kg boxes for free. We sent some out there a few years ago xxx
 
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CrazyCatLady said:
Not quite what you're looking for but I know that the military forces out on operation over Xmas are allowed to receive 2kg boxes for free. We sent some out there a few years ago xxx
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:up:

If anybody is interested in doing this then I get the info for it. I actually have the list of what can't be sent floating around somewhere.
It usually takes over 2 weeks for the parcels to arrive so perishable food items aren't good to send.
I do know one thing which tends to be a big hit. In primark they sell onesies that are animals. I think there's a monkey one, a tiger one etc. They dress up in them and play pranks on people. Or wearing them when reporting to officers etc. :p
 
Annia said:
:up:

If anybody is interested in doing this then I get the info for it. I actually have the list of what can't be sent floating around somewhere.
It usually takes over 2 weeks for the parcels to arrive so perishable food items aren't good to send.
I do know one thing which tends to be a big hit. In primark they sell onesies that are animals. I think there's a monkey one, a tiger one etc. They dress up in them and play pranks on people. Or wearing them when reporting to officers etc. :p
Click to expand...

Alcohol is also not allowed I believe. We managed to sneak some miniatures into some of those big smartie tubes...the guys could have got in quite a bit if trouble for it tho!

We knew some guys out there last time but sent the boxes full of things for them to share amongst all of them. I wonder if there's a way to send it to a ?squadron or however many they're in groups of out there, without knowing any of them personally. I guess so, right? Xxx
 
Erm, I know this is the UK forum, but I was on a NATO base, and I'm pretty sure we all wanted/needed similar things, no matter which army we were in. So if you want ideas, I can give you some. :p
 
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If I remember correctly it was alcohol, material that could be offensive to the country's people (like porn for example), sharps, aerosols and glass that are banned.

I did write out another post but tapatalk didn't post it and I cba to re-write it. But there is a scheme to send things to the forces at Xmas even if you don't know them personally. I'll find all the info about it tomorrow after work. I need sleep now.
 
Thanks guys, great ideas. I found the salvation army do a collection near us in the end http://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/christmas-present-appeal they're obviously a christian charity, but not one that I disprove of, so we collected some presents to donate to them, which will go to poor families in a town near us. (I also donated some food to a homeless shelter - tesco had a deal with them that if you bought food to donate in tesco, tescos would add an extra 30% on top of what had been given, I think this was a local thing though but I'm not sure, there was a list of things they needed).

There is still time to donate to the salvation army if anybody is interested. :) I like the idea of the animal rescue appeal too.
 
There was some controversy not so long ago about the Salvation Army- think they were accused of being anti- gay? Don't know much about it but if its true that would totally put me off of them.

I am doing bags for Mary's Meals- they are a Christian charity but they don't push the Christian message, the bags you make up are of school items for the children (rather than plastic tat and sweets) which will still be appreciated by the children but also have a practical use to set them up for the future and the charity organises for all the children to get a meal a day. They operate in various developing countries but I saw a tv show called The School where some of the pupils took some of the bags to Malawi and it definitely seemed to make a huge difference to the children there. It's not just at Christmas, you can do it all year round:
http://www.marysmeals.org.uk/what-you-can-do/backpack-project/

In my local area there is also the option to buy a gift for a child or teenager in the UK who due to circumstance will otherwise not get any presents this year- it's cash for kids- mission Christmas http://www.tayfm.co.uk/charity/missionchristmas/

Think it is done in other areas too.
 
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lucky_charm said:
There was some controversy not so long ago about the Salvation Army- think they were accused of being anti- gay? Don't know much about it but if its true that would totally put me off of them.
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They are extremely anti-gay. In the US, there have been cases of same-sex couples being denied food at their soup kitchens. They have also pulled funding for their soup kitchens from a couple cities that require non-discrimination towards same-sex spouses of employees. An Australian official with the SA (a public relations director, if I recall correctly) strongly implied on a live radio show that homosexuals should be put to death.

I don't know their policies in the UK.

I will not donate to the Salvation Army, or any program run by the SA, for any reason.
 
lucky_charm said:
There was some controversy not so long ago about the Salvation Army- think they were accused of being anti- gay? Don't know much about it but if its true that would totally put me off of them.
Click to expand...

Gosh this is just depressing. Seems they are anti-gay, although it seems like they have a much stronger anti-gay sentiment in the US. But that's often true because I think it's less acceptable here, at least that's how it seems.

Well I have given them now but I'll know for next year... I think I'm just going to avoid all Christian charities.
 

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