Thanks to Cost Plus World Market for partnering with us to create these gift baskets. All opinions are our own.
The holidays are my favorite time of year; the sights, the smells, the festivities with friends and family. Throughout the years I’ve tried to teach my children how blessed we are and others are not so fortunate. We would purchase toys and candy to gift to people we knew were suffering financial difficulties. This lesson took a long time to sink in as my daughter protested making gift baskets for the needy by telling me, “But, Mom, I need that toy you are giving away!” Now that the children are older they *finally* enthusiastically participate. I ask their input on whom we should donate to each year and we discuss suggestions. While we do shoe boxes to send to children in foreign countries each year, we also like to do something local for our community. My son-in-law, along with other members of the church we attend, volunteers teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) classes. We soon realized, after we began these classes, many of the people who attend these classes live in extreme poverty and would not be having Christmas. We decided this would be the perfect opportunity to gift them with baskets to help them have a traditional Christmas.
We made several types of gift baskets; holiday baking gift baskets, the “total Christmas package” gift baskets and a candy and Christmas toys gift basket. To make the holiday baking gift baskets I started with the Melamine Batter Bowl in holiday colors and lined it with a Holiday themed dish towel. I added some of my baking favorites-a Sof’ella cake mix, Sticky Fingers Scones in holiday flavors like Gingerbread, My Favorite Pancake Mix in Southern Pecan, holiday themed classic candies, like Dots, individual packages of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Hot chocolate, individual Ghirardelli chocolate squares and candy canes.
Our Total Christmas Package basket was designed for people who needed basic necessities. I began by adding four Melamine Vintage Santa plates, four matching glasses and four forks. I added several packages of Haribo Gummi candies, two Duncan Yoyos, individual Ghiradelli chocolates, a tin of World Market Chocolate Peppermint Cocoa, packages of flavored teas, My Favorite Pancake Mix, candy canes and a World Market Christmas ornament.
I also made a basket with classic Little Golden Books, packages of Haribo candy, candy canes, individual packages of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer hot chocolate and Ghiradelli chocolates. With my five baskets, made for different sized families, we were ready to Share the Joy!
You can tell they were well received!
It makes me feel good knowing we were able to help others and enable them to have a more traditional Christmas Celebration. Plus, it’s nice to see my kids are carrying on the tradition too!
Be sure to head over to see how these other bloggers are sharing the joy this holiday season!
The Small Things | | Persia Lou
Flamingo Toes | Mom Favorites | While They Snooze | The Cottage Mama |
What is your favorite holiday tradition?
I love giving gift baskets and we’re actually planning on giving one to our neighbor this year for Christmas.
I would love to win a $2,000 World Market Gift Card! I am heading over to enter now.
What a fantastic campaign! I love giving gift baskets and the ones you made look awesome!
I love making gift baskets. I also like all of your above ideas and suggestions. It is so nice of you all to do this for your ESL families.
This is great to be able to share with people in need – especially at Christmas time
I used to donate new coats every year to the shelters. We won’t be able to this year. First time in a long time. I will miss it.
Those plates are perfect! I love the vintage look and know they’d get me more into the spirit with each meal. There are so many fun gifts at World Market.
This is a fantastic sweepstakes. I will have to see if i can get involved with Share the Joy. It is a great way to give back.
Share the Joy is a fantastic campaign. I love to make gift baskets. We help out at the food bank once a month to give back to our community. I will have to enter the sweepstakes.
I love all of these. I love making gift baskets (and getting them!) they are such a great idea and can be specific or random which makes them so much fun to give and receive!
These are super cute ideas. I love the huge cup that doubled as a gift basket.
Gift baskets are the best gift to give and receive. Thank you for sharing the details of this campaign and being a great example of sharing the joy!
What a nice idea and it’s always great to see others give back to someone in need.
This is awesome! I love how you are teaching your kids to give back.
I love gift baskets, and especially ones for Xmas. It’s such a lovely way to show the spirit of the Holidays by giving to others.
I would love to get a basket like this, so would definitely give one.
It’s a good feeling to share and give, especially during the winter holidays. I would like to win the drawing and know the second gift will go to the Salvation Army, who really helps out the people of Northern Nevada in addition to other places.
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I love Cost World Market… and was super excited when they were carrying New York Seltzer this summer! I will have to stop there soon and stock up on goodies for baskets for the holidays!
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I love gift baskets they are such a lovely idea when it comes to giving people something a little special as you can alter them for each person. x
We have SO many holiday traditions! So many. I do love making gift baskets, however I have a tendency to create over flowing baskets.
I think these baskets are a wonderful idea. All it takes is something like this to brighten up someone’s day.
I love the idea of doing a gift basket with stuff for the entire family. This will be perfect for all of my siblings.
I love these baskets! A little candy, a few knick knacks, and a lot of love go into them. They are just perfect.
I love the idea of making gift baskets for the holidays. It shows you rook the time to put something together for someone!
Oh my goodness, I LOVE that giant mug. I need one in my life. I love making gift baskets during the holidays!
My favorite holiday traditions are the baking that takes place before Christmas! My daughter loves to help me and we bake up a storm for one day. Love it!
Those are awesome! How great that you’re making the holidays brighter for people in need.
Gift baskets are my favorite way to give presents. I love finding all kinds of fun and unique items to tuck in the basket. Thanks for sharing these great ideas.
I love giving gift baskets, too! They are so fun to put together.
It makes me sad to hear that some people can’t afford Christmas. What a great thing you did.