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Day 12 of 12 Days of Christmas! (with Karen Ehman)

It’s Day 12 of 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways! If you’re just joining in, be sure to start at Day 1 here.

Here we are at the last day of our 12 days of Christmas giveaways! ALL WINNERS ANNOUNCED ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 21st! Remember, you must be sure to comment on all 12 posts by midnight Sunday, December 20th, Pacific time if you want to enter to win the grand prize. Once again, here is that fabulous bundle:

This year our Grand Prize is worth over $225!! It includes:

   

Day 12: Christmas Random Acts of Kindness

For our final day, let’s talk about scattering a little yuletide kindness. Especially with the year we’ve had, the world could use a little Christmas cheer. 

Years ago, when our children were very young, a sweet widow on our city block told me a statement I’ve never forgotten. She said that Christmas is an excuse to make someone else’s life better. This might look like adopting a family who deals with food insecurity or helping your church provide gifts for the children of people who are incarcerated. However, there are many actions we can take on a smaller scale that will also help to spread some Christmas kindness. Here are some ideas our family has tried over the years:

  • Take hot cocoa or season lattes to the Salvation Army bellringers around town.
  • Tip the worker assigned to corral all the grocery carts in the parking lot a $10 or $20 bill. Thank them for their hard work and tell them to treat themselves to something when their shift ends.
  • Scrape off vehicle windshields in the grocery store parking lot on a snowy day.
  • Take your family to a local nursing home or assisted living facility and make snowmen outside the resident’s windows. Before doing so, swing by your local Goodwill store to purchase scarves, hats, mittens, etc… for the snowmen. Also take along some sticks for their arms, large black buttons for their faces, and carrots for their noses.
  • Place a basket on your front porch full of granola bars, individual bags of salty treats, or even some Christmas candy for the package delivery person. Be sure to write a note telling them to help themselves and thanking them for their hard work at the holidays.
  • Hand a gift card to a local salon to your favorite barista when they make your peppermint mocha coffee or your gingerbread latte this week. Tell them to treat themselves to a service at the salon and thank them for making your coffee for them all year long.

All over your town there are opportunities for you to make someone else’s life a little better this Christmas. 

Now, for our last question of the day. Share one idea you have for spreading kindness this Christmas or let us know which of the above ideas you would like to try. I can’t wait for your communities to light up with Christmas cheer!

Day 12 Giveaway

The Day 12 giveaway includes my new devotional Reach Out, Gather In: 40 Days to Opening Your Heart and Home a new Christmas fiction book by author Katie Reid called A Very Bavarian Christmas as well as a $40 gift card to Wayfair to buy something decorative for your home!

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Karen Ehman is a New York Times bestselling author, a Proverbs 31 Ministries speaker, and a writer for Encouragement for Today, an online devotional that reaches over four million women daily. She has written 15 books and Bible studies including KEEP IT SHUT: What to Say, How to Say It, and When to Say Nothing at All and Keep Showing Up: How to Stay Crazy in Love When Your Love Drives You Crazy. Karen has been featured on media outlets including TODAY Parenting, Redbook.com, Foxnews.com, Crosswalk.com, Focus on the Family and HomeLife Magazine. Her passion is to help women live their priorities as they reflect the gospel to a watching world. Married to her college sweetheart, Todd, and the mother of three, she enjoys sending hand-written notecards, cheering for the Detroit Tigers, and feeding the many people who gather around her mid-century dining table for a taste of Mama Karen’s cooking.

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12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAYS RULES

  1. U.S. Addresses only please.
  2. You can comment on all 12 days (once per person) up until midnight Pacific time, Sunday, December 20. Each day will be linked below for easy reference.
  3. One daily winner will be chosen from each day’s comments.
  4. To enter to win the Grand Prize (worth over $225 and includes: A leader kit of my What Matters Most Lifeway study of Philippians, including the teaching DVD’s and one Bible study guide; a Wheatfield Woman ESV journaling Bible from Wheat and Honey Co.; a pink cable knit throw (other color options available); a pour-over coffee dripper ; a half pound of Fortress coffee, a company started by two fellow alumni from Spring Arbor University; an insulated pink shimmer mug–or color of your choice), comment on and share all 12 posts. You can use the share buttons below or repost and share on Instagram (my fave!) and tag me @karenehman.
  5. All winners (including Grand Prize) will be announced here on the blog on Monday, December 21, and contacted via email. Please allow 4-6 weeks to receive your prizes.

Day 1 with Shannon Acheson

Day 2 with Amber Smith

Day 3 with Bella Schwenk

Day 4 with Andrea Brouwer

Day 5 with Nicki Koziarz

Day 6 with Alexis Joseph

Day 7 with Kia Stephens

Day 8 with Chrystal Evans Hurst

Day 9 with Jodie Berndt

Day 10 with Alexandra Hoover

Day 11 with Ashley Morgan Jackson

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229 Comments

  1. Loving on the old folks in retirement/assisted/nursing homes is my favorite. We did it this year for our past neighbor lady that has been widowed twice and now is a retirement home.

  2. I deliver peanut clusters and a Christmas cards to all the neighbors on our block. I try to invite anyone I know will be alone on Christmas over on Christmas Eve for food.

  3. I love that … “Christmas is an excuse to make someone’s life better”. I love the idea of a basket of goodies for the delivery drivers. We left a note on our mailbox for the man that delivers our mail at the beginning of the pandemic. I think little gestures like that go a long way.

  4. The past couple of years I have set a note out on my front porch along with a basket of goodies for the delivery drivers.

  5. I hand wrote in Christmas cards to Marines in NC who wouldn’t be going home for Christmas. Also, provided food for our church’s blessings baskets that will go to families in the community.

  6. With the pandemic and taking care of my elderly Dad fulltime, my relaxation is baking. Everytime I bake, I give half of it or more to my neighbors. That has been my RAK for the past few months. My neighbors tell me I am spoiling them. I will be baking goods for Christmas to gift to my neighbors. One thing from the list I want to do is to gift ome of the Costco “loaders” $10 or $20 as you suggested in your list. Being of short stature, I always ask for a “loader” to take my shopping box from my cart. This RAK would be a great way to say “Thank you,,” besides just my words. Thank you for the suggestion.

  7. i really like the one about tipping the grocery cart people, one of our sons had that job for three years. I would try to bring him and his coworkers little treats whenever I would be that direction. Those carts are so helpful, its nice when they are at the ready. Merry Christmas everyone!!

  8. For the last few years, I make a basket filled with goodies for the delivery people who make Christmas easy for me. I put it on the porch with a nice note

  9. I just stumbled across your new devotional and added it to my reading list for next year! I share a similar passion and write about opening our heart, home, and life to our neighbors through neighborhood missional living ?? I am so looking forward to reading Reach Out, Gather In!!!

  10. I brought baked Christmas goodies to the gas station where I regularly fill up and some to a local body shop that had been burglarized earlier that week.

  11. My Sunday School class and church fill stockings and bake cookies for men and ladies in Christ centered recovery program near by. They are battling additions.

  12. If we were not in the middle of a pandemic I would invite a widow with no family to have dinner with us. I am giving a poinsettia to one neighbor and cookies to another. We also donated to the food bank, Salvation Army, a homeless mission and to a coat drive.

    But I love your idea of building snowmen outside of nursing home windows since the residents can’t have visitors. Next time it snows here we come!

  13. Sharing a gift card with a family we learned during a food panty delivery was a single Mom caring for her 5 ANd her sister’s 6 children because her sister is in the hospital with cancer. I also love the idea of tipping the grocery cart collector.

  14. I love the idea of taking a drink or snack to the Salvation Army bell ringer or tipping the grocery cart caddy. Something I also want to do is go Christmas Caroling to shut-ins homes. What a great time this has been! Thank you for helping us remember and to do things to express kindness.

  15. This year we have been taking meals to those who are sick with COVID! We do porch no contact delivery. It’s just one less thing they have to worry about when they are down and out!
    Also this year I did the goodie bags for the delivery drivers. I’ve ordered more online for the holidays this year than I ever have before!

  16. We regularly help a man that is homeless with food and clothing. We help a family in need, usually a single parent family with Back to School supplies and then also for Christmas. My group of girlfriends also helps with a mission project and/or a family in need at Christmas as well. We tip extra to servers and the curbside grocery delivery.

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