Gift Giving Tree? what happens to the rest??

[pfishgirl]

I went to my local church in town and took a bunch of angels off the gift giving tree and attached them to toys that I bought as extras for gifts.. I always buy way too many gifts for Christmas..

Anyway the dead line to drop off gifts was the next day and because we were leaving at 5 am the next morning I made sure I dropped them off..

My question is what happens to all the angels not taken?? I noticed a few for 16 and 17 year old boys and girls and felt really bad cause I, like most, take the younger children and forget there are Teens involved too..

Does anyone know?

 

[froglady]

Our congregation is blessed to have a few people with both the inclination and financial means to buy gifts for any names left on the tree. It hasn't really been an issue for smaller gifts, as our church has a school which also participates. There are always a few requests for bikes, computers, etc which are purchased with donated funds.

 

[golfgal]

We don't use a giving tree but we get cash donations for our gift giving program and then we shop for any gifts that aren't donated. The familes register with how many and the ages of their children and we use that to buy what is needed.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

it greatly depends upon your local orgainzation. Most try to cover every child accepted onto the lists with some type of gift. Often they can cover the rest with purchases made from cash donations. Others don't even hang the names of real children out there -- they are just representative of the type of age ranges they serve...they collect all the gifts and then pass them out as seems appropriate to them. Others put them in a wharehouse/store and give the parents and guardians vouchers to come in and shop for their kids.

 

[pfishgirl]

Thank you very much everyone... it eases my mind a little knowing that there may be money available for the church staff to buy gifts for the rest of the children..

 

[Tinkim]

I wondered about this too. I took the name of a 15-year-old girl off the tree a couple of weeks ago when the tree was full. I used to take younger kids but it always seemed that the teenagers were the last names left. When I went to drop off her stuff, I noticed there were still at least 15-20 names left on the tree and unfortunately I couldn't afford to do anymore and I was hoping the rest of the kids get their Christmas wishes too.