Not allowed to sing, dance, play Christmas tunes, or do much of anything for two hours...
About 10 years ago (and believe me, I have no idea where all that time went ) I saw a great Christmas Advent idea in a magazine and decided to copy it for my family.
Thus was born the advent boxes.
It was great fun for little ones having a box to open every night counting down to Christmas. At first, it was easy: candy canes, pencils, Christmas activity books, etc. I must admit, the best use of the advent boxes was my own - for years I chose tree ornaments that I loved, placing 4 of each in one or two boxes. I never would have felt okay about doing that directly for myself, but hey, if it was for the kids...
But as the kids got older, 25 boxes full of kitschy X-mas stuff seemed a little... excessive. I mean really, an 18-year-old guy really doesn't want stickers and pencils any more, you know? Plus, my ornament collection pretty much filled up the tree, so... it was time to come up with a different idea.
So a couple years ago, I started letting the kids come up with advent box ideas of their own - typically activities, such as "Go to a movie," "Have hot chocolate and play a game together," that sort of thing.
This year, we included lots of charitable activities, of which Salvation Army Bell-Ringing was one.
Fortunately, I had the foresight to choose an indoor location and the day after the great blizzard found the girls and me ringin' that bell in Merle Hay Mall outside the Sears store.
For two hours.
Late in the day.
When no one was shopping.
Not the most thrilling experience we've ever had, but we did get a few donations.
Ringing a bell for two hours doesn't really help a migraine.There are a lot of rules for bell-ringers, enumerated on the back of the Sharing/Caring sign. You aren't allowed to sing... if you do, only loud enough for the person standing next to you to hear, which in our case was probably a good thing.
You aren't allowed to bring a CD of Christmas music, either.
We did our best to follow the rules, though the time sure did crawl.
About 1/2 hour in, I remembered there was a Starbucks in the Target at the other end of the mall. I scrounged up some cash and sent the girls for Mocha Frappucinos, though I questioned whether drinking gourmet coffee while asking for donations would be appropriate.
Apparently, it wasn't.
The Starbucks was out of mocha.
Finally, our two hour stint was over, the kettle had a few extra dollars in it, and the three of us felt good that we had done something to help others.
Best quote from the experience "Smile. I think they're going to give us money."
2 comments:
Well done! I used to do more volunteer work when my life wasn't consumed with law school during all my non-work hours. Of course, getting sheep didn't help either. I'm hoping to do more in coming years though, when I've finished with the chain around my neck! I did buy a lot of yarn for a charity knitting project this year. If I could knit with any speed at all, I could have done more than just buy yarn...
smart move on choosing the indoor spot. we used to sing at our bell ringing stand when i was in high school. wow, things change. have a great holiday. i'm still waiting on cathy to set teh book club schedule. sorry if i got your hopes up.
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