It's a great time to stock up on items to donate to charities. I know that many here on the Cafe are bighearted ladies who also love to shop and to donate.

With all the stores (Walgreens, CVS, Walmart and Target) going to 75% off their Christmas items there is alot to pick from.
I just got back from a run to 3 Target stores and the dollar spot--black dot items ONLY are 75% off making them 25 cents!
I picked up about 100 winter hats, plus gloves, toys, socks and more.

I am now an Area Coordinator with Operation Christmas Child and love to hunt for bargains all year round.
I thought that many of these items would be great for shelters, etc.

Happy hunting!

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MY store had NOTHING!! Not so much as piece of tinsel for sale. My store was recently remodeled and it is so ugly and the food section is larger than some grocery stores.

I bought two Santa Suits one for my husband and the other my first thought was "sell it on craigslist" but my second thought was "there must be a charity in town that could use a Santa suit". And there were tons of little toys, pencils, snow globes, Christmas themed personal hygiene sets, etc.

I'm with you Rose! This year when they put the Toys for Tots bins out I had several bags of toys bought throughout the year as well as personal items.

It's a great thought to keep in mind all through the year.

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The political system is broke and it's a joke.

I have an Operation Christmas Child question if this is the organization that does those shoeboxes. If I buy a bunch of this stuff is there a place to drop it off so it can be used for extras for group packing? Does such a thing exist or is it strictly people donating an already filled ready to go package?

I bought a bunch of Christmas stockings. My kids & I will fill and send to soilders oversears. My DS#1's class did that this year during their holiday party. His teacher's brother and financee are in Iraq. The kids really enjoyed it and I would like to do it again next year. I will stock up on small, useful items throughout the year.

I'll also stock up on winter hats, mittens, gloves, scarves, etc. to donate, once they get marked down 75% off or more.

Collection Week for next year will be the week before Thanksgiving in November. I run the collection sites on Long Island and we LOVE extra items. Yes most people drop off completed boxes and we load up our trucks with mostly that.

BUT, we do get many people who either have extras after packing their boxes, or who only want to donate extras.
We load up a separate carton just for extra items. Those go down to the main warehouse. When they inspect each box (only to make sure it doesn't have things you can't ship, like food and medicine, war toys, etc.) then if there is a mostly empty box they add items that have been donated by people and corporations.
Sometimes one of our collection churches might ask if they can use your items to help fill up some of their boxes they are making.....the choice is yours.

So that would be wonderful. Come next November you can look on this website. Click on local collection sites and plug in your zip code. It will give you their phone numbers, locations, times they are open, etc.

Samaritan's Purse | Operation Christmas Child | OCC Index

All denominations of churches participate. I know on LI many Catholic schools, scouts, and churches participate so maybe even your local parish might? (I say this just because I know from previous convos that you are Catholic.)

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Thanks Rose. I don't think our local Catholic churches do this. I know of one Protestant one that does and I did give some stuff to one of the ladies there. I will probably contact her again or check the website you posted to see if they want all the stuff I will collect this year thanks to the Target dollar spot and other clearances!! Fun, fun, fun!

did you know there is an organization that makes and sends to service people dog tags that they can send to their kids as gifts. I think dogtagsforkids is fantastic but right now donations are way down. If you know a group of service people men or women there is a form you fill out and as soon as possible they will fill the orders no charge to anybody.