Christmas Jar Story: 'What fun we had'

Simpsonville, SC:

Two years ago I bought the book for my husband to read. Once he read it, I then read it and so did our oldest son. We started our first jar that year and what an amazing experience! When December rolled around, we knew who we would give the jar to. We could not do it anonymously but delivered it to her at work. After that, we immediately started our next jar, not knowing who would get it. My husband thought of the idea to present it to our church to encourage people to start their own Christmas Jar Tradition. So we gathered books and jars. We talked to the congregation on a Sunday morning and put up a sign up sheet for them to receive their book and jar. We filled our dining room with blank jars and we began decorating them with Christmas stickers and decorations!

What fun we had! Our two boys had a big hand in the decorating! We had about 25 people sign up but we decided to make extra jars in case people wanted one that didn't sign up. Thank goodness we did! We went through all the jars and had a list of 8 more to make, a total of 48 jars!!! What a wonderful feeling of spreading such a meaningful ministry to other people in hopes that they will now keep the ministry going. We hope that this keeps growing and growing to help so many people in need. It has changed our family and this year we are on our third jar and plan to continue it for years to come!