Christmas eve Joy bags

 

I have felt some heartache this Christmas (every year...but this year 2020 especially), for those that will be shut in, quarantined, alone this Christmas Eve and Christmas.  It happens every year, but it will be much more prominent this year as many older people are having to stay in by themselves.  Many churches are doing online services, so Christmas Eve and Christmas day services will not be in person either.  So, for many people, there will be no personal interaction...which breaks my heart.  So, I wanted to do something for a few people I knew who would be alone.  I wanted to include some funny things, some useful things, some treats, activities and some inspiring Scripture and messages.  So, I went on pinterest and put all these things together and put them into a stocking.  Thank you to all the bloggers who have made these tags and printables - all of them free.  So, all you need to do is make a trip to the Dollar store and buy the items (total was $12 per stocking...including the stocking)!  The only things that I didn't get there was the puzzle (which I already had on hand) and the colored pencils - which I had leftover from the back-to-school sales at Walmart.  

Here are the things I included - but maybe you have stuff on hand already - and many of these (like kisses, candy canes, etc) come 8-10 to a pack.  

Buy a little sanitizer and attach this cute "santa-tizer" tag to it! thank you to "Main Event Prints" blog for the printable.

U-create Crafts made this great M&M printable using religious Christmas Story references.

This is one of my favorites.  This is a beautiful printable by Darling Doodles <3 

Chapstick!  Dollar tree had Christmas ones for $1 or other kinds 3 for $1. Fun for little ones made this cute tag.

The Legend of the Candy cane is a good printable or you can use this bookmark printable from My computer is my Canvas that explains the symbolism of the candy cane legend.

I found this idea at How Does She and made my own tag using fun fonts from fontmeme. 

I modified this tag because it was meant for a mixture of foods.  Because of COVID, people (especially our older friends) would prefer bagged items instead of prepared food.  So, I just cut off the bottom of the tag and only included bugles and pretzels. From Caramel Potatoes.

I love the Happy Home Fairy and she has the cutest free printables.  Including some corny jokes in the stocking would be great!

If you want to include a Hershey's chocolate bar (I ended up not doing this one because it was $5...but it's cute) here is a printable from Esty.  

Lastly, I wrote out a card with "Merry Kiss-mas" (which you could also print here from Etsy for $3 or elf kisses here) and included colored pencils and an inspiritional word search and coloring book from the Dollar store - saying "May your Christmas be inspirational and full of color" :)   

I put all of the items into a stocking from the Dollar store and I'm going to deliver them on the 22nd with a note attached that says, "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL CHRISTMAS EVE OR CHRISTMAS DAY" :) 

Merry Christmas and God bless!  May your Christmas be full of love, peace and joy...