Volunteering with Kids

For Christmas this year we are trying to start a tradition in our family. We are planning to get involved in our community to help others instead of buying and exchanging gifts. We will still have a Christmas tree. And I was thinking maybe one small present for each child from "Santa", just to include that as a tradition. I am hoping for some volunteer projects/ideas that we could involve both kids with (ds 4year, dd 15 months).
Some ideas we have thought of are...Operation Child... we will be filling a shoebox with assigned items to mail to Kosovo, Possibly helping serve meals at a shelter, or Ronald McDonald house, ringing the bell for donations for the Salvation Army.

Open to any and all ideas!

[surprisebaby]

I think that is wonderful...
We have filled the shoebox the last couple of years...the only thing is, these gifts go over seas...and I would prefer to be helping a family locally.  

[ma2isiah]

If you prefer a local family. You can always do the angel tree. It lists name and age of child to buy a gift for. The salvation army sees that the child gets the gift.

[AndiJ78]

We do a variety of giving things throughout the year. One that my kids enjoy is toy shopping for Toys4Tots and the local Tree of Sharing. We also do the shoe boxes for my mom's church (they send them along for us) and we give monetarily throughout the year to a few charities.

As the boys grow older, we will begin doing more hands on activities in the community. We are in a rural area, so simply checking in on elderly neighbors is a good way to give a little back as well.

I think it is great to hear parents wanting to get their kids involved.