Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Free Cookie Stand - Act of Service

Like most people around here, we try to do a little act of service around Christmas. We try to teach our kids to be kind, to think of others, and to be charitable. In years past, we have brought and served dinner at a homeless shelter or sung carols at a nursing home. These are common activities that our friends have done, but there were always a few others that we COULD NOT do because of the age of our children, like working at a food bank, sorting donations, or helping to clean up trails. 

This year, we decided to do our own act of service, to give away christmas cookies on "Pay it forward" terms. 

My husband thought it was a fantastic idea... we have done lemonade stands on a corner by our house with great success. Plus, he'd never heard of a free cookie stand! We'd try it out and see how it went.
The kids and I spent 3 hours one day making 4 different kinds of cookies, all from scratch. They all picked a recipe from our recipe book, and helped decorate the sugar cookies!

I made these cute little printable tags that we stapled right onto the bags. I wanted to have a nice message and so I wrote an invitation to pay it forward by doing an act of kindness:




We got everything packaged, prepped our posters, and drove off to the popular corner in the neighborhood. 


People loved it. Not a TON of people stopped, but I think 90% of the people who drove by had a smile on their face. Even if they didn't want a sugary treat, I helped my kids know that just seeing them serve made those people happy. Love is so contagious!






Seriously, my kids loved this activity so much. We had to teach them how to DECLINE TIPS because people were trying to give them $5's, $20's, and even some $50's!!!!!!! We helped show our kids how to politely decline, that we are not in this for the money, but to share love and happiness this Christmas season!

Merry Christmas!