5 Kid-Friendly Ways to Give Back this Holiday Season

It's important to teach our children how to give back to others, especially during the holiday season. Often I hear parents saying that they don't know if their younger children will understand community service, or that they aren't sure the types of projects they can do with their little ones to give back.  I thought I would compile a list of 5 simple things you can do with your family to give back this Holiday season.

5 Kid-Friendly Ways to Give Back this Holiday Season

1. Volunteer at a Soup Kitchen. The First United Methodist Church of Toms River offers a soup kitchen on the 3rd and 4th Tuesday of every month from 2-6pm. Young children can volunteer by doing simple acts such as folding napkins or handing out paper plates.

2. Allow your children to help you prepare a meal and deliver it to a family in need or an elderly neighbor. Kids always enjoy cooking and baking, and this is something your whole family can do together.

3. Suggest that your children go through their toys, books, and stuffed animals, and have them make a donation to a local thrift shop or shelter. Locally, you can donate items such as these to Your Grandmother's Cupboard, whose mission is to provide the "other necessities" for individuals and families living in poverty.

4. Allow your kids to help you choose gifts for their grandparents (or other family members) through websites such as Ten Thousand Villages, an online store that offers dozens of fair-trade items at reasonable prices, all of which support other organizations or projects in need.

5. Host a "volunteering" playdate. Instead of letting the kids run wild while you sip coffee with your girlfriends, put out craft supplies and ask the kids to make decorative snowflakes which you can later donate to a local nursing home. These small acts of kindness truly brighten the day of those who live there.