Holiday Community Service Ideas

The holiday season is a great time to give back to your community. Check out some of the community service ideas Ms. Krupa (Missouri) mentions!

The holidays are about giving and spending time with loved ones, but can also be an extremely stressful time for all of us. The holidays can be even more stressful for the under-privileged, elderly or those who do not have loved ones close. These are perfect opportunities for FCCLA members to serve! If students can get involved in giving back to a cause or helping their community in a way that matters to them, the lasting benefits can be far-reaching. Part of the key to our success with the projects is letting the kids pick out what they want to do. The simpler the project, the more successful it’s likely to be.

There are many ideas for projects! Here is just a small list to help you get started:

• Collect items (lotions, nail polish, sweatpants, sweaters, games, snacks, etc.) for a local nursing home.
• Sponsor a family for Christmas. Volunteer with the organization that gathers the gifts to sort all the donations. 
• Join the Salvation Army bell ringers.
• Collect toys for Toys for Tots.
• Adopt needy families within your school district through a school social worker. 
• Walk to a local nursing home and sing Christmas Carols. 
• Host a “Parent’s Day Out” where parents are able to drop off their children for the day to finish up holiday shopping or run errands. Provide snacks, lunch, games, and activities for the day.
• Send holiday cards to soldiers.
• Bake holiday treats to take down to a local homeless shelter.
• Offer a gift-wrapping service and donate the money to a charity.
• Shovel snow from a neighbor’s sidewalk.
• Help an elderly person put up Christmas lights.
• Make a meal for families in Ronald McDonald Homes.
• Collect and donate gently used books to a children's hospital.

There are many opportunities for community service projects. Giving back never goes out of style. Despite all the new toys in stores and fancy holiday apps online, volunteer work remains one of the best ways to spend the season. In addition to fostering thoughtfulness, charity, and social skills, service-based learning teaches students how to identify and solve issues worth caring about.