Kind acts at Christmas time (2015 edition)

This Christmas season, I decided to participate in several projects showcasing more kindness, more charitable acts and more love. Of course, my family is also involved!

* Ornaments swap. In the Multicultural Kid Blogs community, members, who wished for it, have bought or crafted ornaments to send /share to the others entrants. 1 ornament + 1 card: a lovely way to connect with our fellow members on MKB.
I have made with my children those three stars: wooden sticks, golden paint, rope and markers (different colors). They have already been sent (and I hope received!) to California, Texas (USA) and Switzerland. I choose "stars" ornaments because of our family's Christian belief and the role of the "bright star" who guided the sheperds to baby Jesus and later the wise men to a toddler Jesus.
I'm eager to discover the ones I will receive from three different bloggers and the story behind them.

I was a bit too enthusiaste with the paint spray and painted my fingers... It was proof that I made them by myself (and the help of my daughter who cut the rope and pass me the sticks).

* Care package between expats.
Thanks to Oui In France and her kind idea, I have prepared a package that I sent to Singapore to an expat I didn't know (but I had some infos about what she liked...). I will also receive one before Christmas from someone else.
As you can see on the picture below, I bought a mix of food and goodies: marzipan from a reknown company in Lübeck, chocolates in a package decorated with a picture of my town, a stollen, a magnet, a armband with a lucky angel, a card and small candles.

Oui In France: Facebook page, or twitter.

From Oberursel, Germany, to Singapore.

* 3 week-ends of family kindness
Three weeks ago, I saw a post in my FB news feed about a project one of the MKB member wanted to organize. It's the project #beSanta by Hanna Cheda  (+ use of the famous #randomactsofkindness). The idea is rather simple: chose three week-ends in December and do a generous act with the whole family. I have talked with my husband and my children and after hearing that they found the project great, I told them of what I had in mind for our kind acts.

- Sending a postcard to a French class learning about the countries this year (see the article in French): a primary school teacher has posted on her FB page a message for help. Her students (23 kids from 6 to 11 years old, living on the isle of Noirmoutiers, France) have for topic this year "Countries of the world". So she asked her friends to share her message "Send them postcards from your country / town". They have already received around 5000 postcards (+ some presents).
My son will write his postcard this Saturday (with my help, he's learning to write only for three months) and the children of Noirmoutiers will receive it before St Nicolas' Day.

- preparing homemade gifts for the neighbours. That's my second time to prepare gifts for the neighbours. My first Christmas in Germany, I had packed a mix of Christmas cookies and hung them on their doorknob. Last year, we just moved from our rented flat to our current (owned) flat and I had no time to come up with something.
This 6th of December - St Nicolas' Day -, I will surprise them with homemade candle jars + chocolates (bought, I'm not a chocolatier). I have one week to finish decorating the last four jars. My daughter loves to help with that activity. My son prefers to wait for the third one.

- making toys for the animals at the shelter. Yeap, you read right. We're going to cut some old jeans, sew some fabrics, and create toys! I have found many DIY on Pinterest and the kids chose the jeans braid + t-shirts toss and tug toys for the dogs and cardboard balls + rolls with metallic paper cover (cats love shiny things). This activity will take us several afternoons next month and that's perfect for me.


Be on the look out, I will post pictures after our different projects will be completed.

I invite you this Christmas season to take care for the people in your life AND for those you don't know. Kindness doesn't always require lost of hours and difficult work. Most often, it demands just an open heart and a will to serve. Of course, we can't be everywhere. So chose a few charitable deeds you know you can do and act!