Comments on: Delivering Angel Tree Gifts in the Spirit of Christmas

By: Sandra Sims

Sandra Sims — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:40:36 +0000

Thanks Sherri, glad you enjoyed the post.

By: Sherri Adams

Sherri Adams — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:29:45 +0000

Thsi is a lovely idea, and I’m glad I came across your blog in plenty of time to suggest it at my church for next Christmas.

Thanks, Sherri

By: Jessica

Jessica — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:38:21 +0000

I love the idea of “angel birthday tree”. Kids at church must love it. What do you think, Sandra?

By: Marcus - Best Florists

Marcus - Best Florists — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:47:24 +0000

I agree, Sandra - giving gifts is addicting! I also think angel trees are a great way to strengthen fellowship within a church and the surrounding community. I also like Jaki’s idea of setting up an angel birthday tree year-round (or during the summer.)

By: Jaki - guardian angel figurines

Jaki - guardian angel figurines — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:58:09 +0000

I just came across your post and I had to think it would be nice if we could have an angel tree year round and not just at Christmas. I think it might be neat to set up an “angel birthday tree” maybe for children who have a hard time enjoying their birthdays. Just a thought, wonder what others think of this

By: Paula from 1st in Unique Gifts

Paula from 1st in Unique Gifts — Mon, 12 May 2008 11:59:26 +0000

I did something similar for work. We generally have three trees - one for the kids, one for the local nursing home and one for the dogs home. Ir’s always a success because there are so many willing to give.

By: survival

survival — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 05:56:14 +0000

Sandra,

I think the only way children can grow into responsible, caring, emotionally generous adults is by being exposed to love and charity like this. This post has a beautiful message. Thanks for sharing this - I recently starting doing a similar event with my company this past Christmas and I have to say I just feel great about it.

Best,
Rick

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By: Sharani

Sharani — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 20:31:30 +0000

thanks for the details Sandra. This is a very worthy and excellent concept. I adopted a family through a local business but just gave money and I think the company was going to purchase the actual items on their wish list. I like the idea of directly buying what a child has/family has requested.

By: Sandra Sims

Sandra Sims — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 20:16:56 +0000

Hi Sharani, actually a good question, I’m sure there’s lots of areas that don’t have angel trees. Each angel is a disadvantaged child whose Santa wish list is on their angel tree card ornament. It usually also lists the child’s first name and age. People choose the cards and then buy gifts, wrap them and return to the tree location.

The Salvation Army local affiliates run the program and with help from other agencies select children in need to receive gifts; those who may not have gifts otherwise. I’ve seen other organizations run angel trees too. It makes it easy for individuals to do something to directly help someone else.

It does take quite a bit of volunteer work and organization on the part of the charity, especially if there are multiple trees and many recipients. In our city I think we had 2000 kids. All the organizations that had trees (like our church) were responsible for making sure that all the kids on our lists had gifts (that’s why we were checking off the gifts vs. the list.) All the groups deliver their gifts to a central location and then are distributed on a particular day. Each angel has a number and the organizers sort the gifts so that when the parent come to pick them up they can find them easily. I wish I could have been at the depot for the actual gift distribution. Maybe next year!