One of the challenges in the parish where I work is families seeing the value in coming together with other families and doing something for others. I have tried a few things in the past and they were not very successful. This year I thought and prayed about what to I could do and the plan worked!
On December 6, the feast of St. Nicholas, we had a party. The plan: eat pizza, learn about St. Nick, decorate gift bags, fill them with toys, and give them to a transitional housing center for homeless families.
I read this book, The Secret of St. Nicholas by Ellen Nibali, to the group. I tied into the idea that just as Nicholas helped other children in secret when he was a boy, we would be doing the same thing with our gift bags. The book tells us that Nicholas did the good deeds in secret because he remembered that Jesus said we should do that. The children liked that the gifts would be a surprise for other children and most seemed to grasp the concept of doing good and not expecting anything in return.
After the story and pizza the decorating and filling began. All the gift donations were sorted by gender and age so the children picked ten to twelve gifts from one section to put in each bag. We filled over forty bags. As a thank you to the children, our bible study ladies helped me cover chocolate bars with St. Nick wrappers. Those were a big hit!
The event lasted about 90 minutes and was pretty easy to organize. Parents had a good time, and many even joined in the bag decorating or helped fill bags and keep children on track. The event is a keeper and we have plans to do something similar in the spring with a different theme.
If anyone would like specific details or information, let me know. I am happy to share!
Copyright © 2013, Deanna Bartalini
Deanna Bartalini
Deanna G. Bartalini, is a Catholic writer, speaker, and educator. She serves on the retreat team at Our Lady of Florida Spiritual Center. Deanna loves teaching about Catholicism and how it fits into our daily lives. She writes at DeannaBartalini.com, serves as the editor of the NewEvangelizers.com blog, and is a contributor there as well as at AmazingCatechists.com. Deanna contributed to A Catholic Mom's Prayer Companion published by Ave Maris Press. She is the author of “Invite the Holy Spirit into Your Life: Growing in Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control” published by Our Sunday Visitor. Deanna is available to lead retreats and speak at catechist and ministry events.
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