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It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas
Ah, Christmas...hopefully it brings you good tidings of comfort and joy and not stress and misery. Let's be honest, Christmas is probably the single most stress-filled holiday there is. The season is fun and merry but the details and costs can be downright hairy. I find the older I get, the more I tend to buck the system. If you're looking for some different ideas, more meaningful gifts and fun, organic ways to spend quality time with your family, then you're in the right place! I'm your atypical holiday girl! I'm excited to share the things we do, and I hope you'll share your awesome ideas, too! Read my Holiday Blog posts for more details!
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#1 Santa's Secret Service
What is Santa's Secret Service?
That's a great question because there are THREE variations!
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Operation Good Deed Doer, Santa's Secret Service is a collection of
holiday themed Secret Service Missions (kindness kits) for kids. It is simply what we
call our outreach where we use Secret Service (kindness) Mission kits to help kids be kind and think kind! We started doing this with Drew when he was five years old. Read more about why we started Operation Good Deed Doer Christmas 2020 will be Series IV of Santa's Secret Service! If this is your first time to do it, start with Series I! All of our kits are either available in our shop and our Etsy shop or by special order. See our CATALOG!
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New for 2020 we have added Santa's Secret Service Outreach a
and Operation Santa Says! We've been doing our own little Santa's
Secret Service outreach on Christmas Eve for years, but we decided it's way
past time to share this wonderful tradition!
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Santa's Secret Service for CLASSES, GROUPS or PARTIES!
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How does Santa's Secret Service work for CLASSES or GROUPS?
For schools, typically, after Thanksgiving break, each student in the class receives a recruitment letter and their first Mission in an envelope marked, “Top Secret." Then, the students receive a Mission a week until they break for the holidays. The Missions are simple and easy to carry out. Everything the students need is provided. What if the student does not complete the Mission? No worries, it is all for fun and a great learning opportunity.
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On the last day of school for the semester, typically at the holiday party,
the students graduate Basic Holiday Training which certifies them to
do good deeds year-round. I used to show up at Drew's parties with the
most realistic pair of elf ears I could find, wearing a blazer with a homemade
Santa's Secret Service badge. ;) The teacher (or a mom) can give the kids a
quiz about kindness, help with the teacher gift portion of the activity or help
hand out the student’s, or should we say, Secret Service Agent’s, graduation certificates. You can also
add badges, cool reindeer glasses and other fun items to help the kids go undercover.
THESE ALL INCLUSIVE GROUP MISSIONS CAN BE PURCHASED VIA SPECIAL ORDER.
The perfect party favor that lasts a lifetime.
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How does Operation Good Deed Doer, Santa's Secret Service, work as a PARTY for ADULTS or KIDS?
Operation Good Deed Doer makes a super fun party theme for kids or adults! At the parties, both large and small, Secret Service Missions (good deeds) are available for guests. For example, for our adult party, our party goers were volunteers we were recognizing for the holidays. They received a Top Secret recruitment invitation in the mail asking to meet at our post (location). Once they arrived they were directed to a table where they could select Secret Service Missions of their choice. They got to choose between giving away grocery gift cards, paying off layaways and other fun good deeds. This party theme was the best because the volunteers we were recognizing were very giving people who absolutely loved the idea of getting to give. Adults have just as much fun as the kids when plotting how to carry out their Missions. Many shared the Missions with their kids, grandkids, church groups and friends.
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Can I customize Operation Good Deed Doer, Santa's Secret Service for my party or group?
Templates for some of our Santa's Secret Service Missions are available on our Pinterest page! Click the Pinterest icon at the top of the page! OR if you'd like, send us an email request and we'll gladly email you the zip files! You can tailor the Missions to meet the needs of your class, group, office or simply use them for yourself! If you'd like us to design custom Missions for you, we'd love that, too!
We would LOVE IT if you tagged us in your Instagram photos! Tag @cometogetherwithkindness and hashtag #operationgooddeeddoer #santasecretservice #cometogetherwithkindness
Help us inspire kindness!
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Email Carmen at carmen@cometogetherwithkindness.com for more information!
Whew! We're just now on #2!
Check out our Gift of Giving booklet.
We took all our random acts of kindness throughout the year and complied them into a booklet.
READ how we created the booklet (below) which we gave as our Christmas gift to our family!
We even have a Fun Form called a RAK Tracker to help your with your booklet!
You can find it and download it FREE HERE!
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Code for OursELVES
Click the pages to read the booklet.
Alas! We've made it to #3
Don't go nuts, give nuts!
I wrote a short blog post about this alternative
gift idea that is inexpensive, fun and practical.
Read more about it HERE!
#4 Read & Seed
One of our favorite random acts of kindness to do on
Christmas Eve is to leave gift cards in children's books at a
bookstore. Obviously this kindness activity can be done any
time of year! Many times, while there, we also give treats to the
clerks who are working on Christmas Eve. I've also included this
kit in a party for adults using variation number 3 of
Operation Good Deed Doer (toward the top of the page)!
Check out the blog post that shares all the fun details about
Read and Seed called, Sow Kind.
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We've created a new variation of Read and Seed to partner with
our Curly Q Drew book signing and outreach parties!
Chick HERE for more details!
#5 Come Together with Care Mail
Come Together with Care Mail is the perfect kindness centered activity
turned party favor for a class or group! Kids share kind words with one
another to create Care Mail. This is perfect for Christmas or
Valentine’s Day! The year we did this with Drew's class we had so
much fun! He STILL loves to read his Care Mail each year when we
get out our Christmas decorations.
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It's a fairly simple and inexpensive activity to do that turns out to be a
treasured gift that the kids can enjoy for many years. It just requires a
little bit of pre-planning to ensure you don't run out of time to collect all
the kids' compliments and kind words. Cutting slips and stuffing in little
mailboxes, cards or envelopes took us about an hour for a class of 18.
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We put stickers on the bottom and turned the mailboxes on their side so we could easily see the names. This made it easier to stuff the slips. Gift tags would work perfectly for this, too!
I got these little tin mailboxes at Dollar Tree. I soon learned that it's much easier
to order items in "lots" from Dollar Tree and have them shipped to your local
store for free. That way I was ensured the amount I needed and I didn't have
to hope there was enough, fill my cart and then ring up 18 mailboxes! These came boxes of 24. So I used the extras for gifts for Drew's teachers. We put a gift card along with a personal "care mail" message from Drew in each and it made a really cute gift!
If you'd like to do this activity with your class or group let me know and I'll send you everything you need for!! carmen@cometogetherwithkindness.com
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