Angel Trees

I noticed a bunch of people say they do them. Just wondering how you pick your angels?

Now, I pick 2 kids, the same age as my 2 or close to it. Pre-kids, I used to pick a little girl around my goddaughter's age. :) I always bought Barbies & Princesses for the little girl.

We do it through our church. But we pick 4 girls(well, 3 last year), the same age as our girls. If they didn't have the same age we would pick another one probably at random.

We normally just take one off the tree. We don't have a hard selection criteria.

We try to get boys as close to our boys age as we can.

We always pick a boy Danny's age or closest we can get. Before Danny, we just picked a few names and usually younger kids. Some of the older kids ask for ridiculous items - high ticket items and that's not very charitable in my opinion.

Prekids I always picked a baby & older child...One time I got one from the senior tree....That was really neat to choose a grandparent in need...Do they still have the tree for the seniors? I'm not sure if we've done it since having kids...Bad memory:lol

We do one boy / one girl for the Christmas Box which is sent before Thanksgiving, but for the angel we just pick one off the tree. We get the angel from Lauren and Ian's old preK at the church. I LOVE getting seniors. :love

Northpark mall always had one when we lived in Dallas and I bet Stonebriar or Willow Bend has one also.

We always pick a boy Danny's age or closest we can get. Before Danny, we just picked a few names and usually younger kids. Some of the older kids ask for ridiculous items - high ticket items and that's not very charitable in my opinion.

I've done these "angel trees" everyplace I've ever lived, and texas is the very first place where it tells you what the kid is asking for.
The FIRST year i didn't do one was the christmas we were in texas, b/c the tree at vista ridge was FULL to the brim of kids asking for TVs, playstations, bikes and dvd players. NOT in our budget at the time.. not even for our family. I was really turned off at the fact that all the kids picked such high priced items.

Back in PA I used to rotate... one year a girl, one year a boy.. always young, and i'd pick something like a toy tractor (we lived in the country, LOL) or a doll

We just go with a gut feeling, really. We also try to do siblings, and Collin Creek Mall's tree groups siblings into groups so it's easy to choose.

The FIRST year i didn't do one was the christmas we were in texas, b/c the tree at vista ridge was FULL to the brim of kids asking for TVs, playstations, bikes and dvd players. NOT in our budget at the time.. not even for our family. I was really turned off at the fact that all the kids picked such high priced items.

This bugs me as well.

We always pick a boy Danny's age or closest we can get. Before Danny, we just picked a few names and usually younger kids. Some of the older kids ask for ridiculous items - high ticket items and that's not very charitable in my opinion.


A lot of times the kids do not have any say in what goes on the tree. Social workers and sometimes the parents will pick.

Often, the families will ask for things like coats and shoes, the social workers will feel bad that there are no toys or other cool things on there and add whatever THEY think would be awesome for the kids.
You also have to have your kids ready to go on the angel tree by about August, so it sometimes take some creative input from the SW.

(This was my experience working at a few of the agencies that had angels included).

Yeah I remember one asking for a barbie cruiseship and it was 90.00 at that time....uh no.
So I got the Barbie bubble house and a new doll to go with.

You can shoot for the moon. My Ian is asking for a Power Wheels Hummer and PS3 and he's not getting either this year.......sorry babe.

I have noticed that too, Michelle & Jackie.

I can still remember standing with Shaun and looking for an angel on the tree and him commenting about some of the "wishes". This was the year one of the PS2 James Bond games was hot and hard to find. Several kids had that on their "lists" (which I couldn't understand anyhow, since if you are in such need, aren't videogames and systems a bit frivoulous to own?). But the comment that still sticks in my head from him--"when I wanted videogames or cds at 15, my parents made me get a job, what's wrong with these kids?"

I try to opt for the under 10, under 5 or 6 preferably, they are just more fun to shop for.

I loved doing this with Elizabeth's elementary class. I would have all the parents just bring me the money and then I owuld do the shopping. We were able to give the kids so much this way. I always made sure to buy them clothes, including underwear and coat and then I would always buy a few toys as well.
I was hoping to do this with Rebecca this year but not sure we will be able to as we have to buy more then $85 worth of Secret Santa gifts for the girls for school. :( I was so saddened by this. One of the groups doing the secret santa is also doing a service project making ornaments and they have to bring in $5.00 for that and she said she would prefer we do not just give it to them but that they earn it from us. This group is the same one doing a $20 secret Santa gift!! How about earning $20 towards an angel tree gift instead! They would collect $480 if they did that instead.
Ok off my rant!
I usually choose younger kids that I can afford the gifts for.