Christmas Blessings
Sharing the Joy of Christmas
Each Christmas season, we celebrate the birth of Jesus by sharing His love, joy, and hope with children, families, and community partners. Christmas Blessings brings together Austin Blessings Co-op’s Christmas outreach, including three Christmas Toy Stores, gifts for agency partners, Austin Blessings Outreach Center Celebrations, and the Gather & Give Celebration at Riverbend Church.
For 31 years, our Angels Afoot volunteers have been at the heart of this work, shopping for, sorting and delivering thousands of gifts for our neighbors. Their faithful service continues through Christmas Blessings as we create meaningful experiences, strengthen relationships, and help more families experience the joy of Christmas.
Gift Drive & Toy Stores:
Gift Drive FOR local agencies
With our Gift Drive, Riverbenders buy and wrap gifts for specific children according to their wish lists. We partner with Austin area agencies to provide gifts to the children they serve. These kids are often in foster care, shelters, or other difficult situations, and giving them gifts is a way that we can help provide them with a sense of hope and joy each holiday season. We partner specifically with organizations who actively care for at-risk or otherwise underprivileged kids in the greater Austin area.
Partner Organizations: Any Baby Can, Healthy Families, Children’s Partnerships, and Partnerships for Children.
Christmas Toy Stores
With our Toy Stores, ABC’s Community of Kindness assists our team in purchasing toys that we use to create our very own pop-up toy stores at the Austin Blessings Outreach Centers EAST & SOUTH and in Mexico. The purpose is to allow parents to have an opportunity to provide gifts for their children for just a nominal fee, when they might not otherwise be able to, resulting in a sense of dignity that is emotionally significant. Many volunteers help with setup, shopping, and wrapping at these very festive and spiritually powerful events.
The Toy Stores will be open on DEC 5, 12, and 13, keep scrolling for more info.
There are three simple ways to help us this year:
1. Donating $
We know that this is a busy time of year. If you don’t think you’ll have the time to go out and shop, we have two easy solutions. You can simply click on the “Donate to Christmas Blessings” and we will shop for you. Or you can click on our Online Kindness Store and choose from available gifts that you feel called to donate. In either case, we’ll take care of the rest!
2. Buying Gifts
Physical Gift Tags @Riverbend - select a tag(s) before or after our Sunday morning services at Riverbend Church during November. Purchase a new (not used) gift from the tag's suggestions or an age-appropriate gift. Gifts should cost no more than $40. Make sure to follow the tags' instructions — some gifts are wrapped, and others are not.
3. Volunteering
Volunteering with Christmas Blessings is easy and fun. Each year we have volunteers that come out to help out each Sunday with our Gift Drive at Riverbend, and volunteers that help staff our Toy Stores in South & East Austin, and in Mexico. This year, we have the following volunteer opportunities:
NOV: Sunday morning volunteers at Riverbend - Register here >
NOV 8: Gather & Give Celebration at Riverbend - Register here >
DEC 4 - 6: Christmas Toy Store @ Mexico | Piedras Negras - Register here >
DEC 9: Gift Loading & Delivery Day at Riverbend - Register here >
DEC 12: Christmas Toy Store @ ABOC - East - Register here >
DEC 13: Christmas Toy Store @ ABOC - South - Register here >
For more info about any of our Christmas Blessings volunteer opportunities, please contact Krista Ross.