Who has the Christmas spirit?  We do, we do!  Today I am sharing with you a recent charity project I did with my oldest daughter, Brynne and her friends.  If you haven’t heard of “Racking”, then you will love this fabulous gift of “paying it forward”.

Just so you know, RACK = random acts of Christmas Kindness… The concept is to “pay it forward” by going out in public and “racking” strangers with money or any other act of kindness.  I saw a girlfriend of mine do this last year, and I thought it was such a great concept.  Download your FREE PRINTABLE RACKING TAGS, so you can pass around some Christmas Spirit.

I decided to do it this year because my daughter, Brynne came to me in October and asked me to help her throw a Secret Santa party with her friends.  I told her they could be Secret Santas to each other, but then I wanted them to be Secret Santas to others.  I knew right away, that “racking” would be the perfect way for the girls to do this.

I asked the girls to come over in October for our Secret Santa meeting. We chose names for the girls to exchange gifts with each other, and then I gave them all jars and told them about the concept of “racking”.  I asked them to start saving/collecting any spare change or dollars from October – December, and we would compile our collections at our Secret Santa party.   We also decided who we would “rack”.  We came up with a few ideas, wrote them down and started saving!

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The night of our Secret Santa party, we took all the collections to Walmart’s change machine so we could combine the money.  We broke up the money into: quarters, $1’s and $5’s.

1.  We taped quarters to the back-side of the tags
2.  We rolled one dollar bills and tied tags to them
3.  We put five dollar bills into clear cellophane bags and tied tags to them
4.  We tied tags to candy canes (to leave with people throughout the night)

The girls had fun assembling our tags to all the various coins & dollars.  We called ourself “Santa’s Workshop”.

Once we had our collection of goods ready, we headed around town to various places to start “RACKING”.

We went to the following places:
1. First stop:  The local Goodwill – we hid dollars in clothes, on clothing racks, in kid’s toys, shoes etc.

2. Then we hit Marshall’s store.  We put the exact amount of money ($12) in a pair of toddler shoes.

3. Third stop: Pet Smart.  We hid $5’s around the store on pet food, treats, etc.  We stuck the tag in the front with the $5’s hiding in the back.

4. Between stops, we would go through fast food restaurant car lines, like McDonalds – ask for a water at the drive-through… and then when we would go to pay we would ask to pay for the car behind us.  We would leave the cashier with a candy cane that had the “Rack” tag, and ask them to give it to the car behind us (so they knew they had been “racked”).

5. We “racked” gas stations as well… leaving $5 on random pumps.  The girls would occasionally get out at various stops and pass around candy canes and leave on the driver’s door handles, just for fun.

6. We went to the Dollar Tree, and hid $1’s around the store on various items.

7. We also left quarters on gum ball machines for kids to find.

8. We left money on atm machines… and also “racked” several red boxes, by taping $1’s to the movie screens.  (Even though you can’t use a $1 in the machine, it still pays for the movie).

9. We stopped at Walmart again, so we could “rack” the kid’s toy section.  We left $5’s in/on various toys!

10. We “racked” convenient stores… leaving $1’s and quarters around the store on candy, water bottles, etc.

11. Our last stop of the night, was at our local Aldi store.  In order to use their carts, you have to insert a quarter to pull it out. We tied several quarters to the carts for people to find in the morning.

Once we were finished for the night (we spent several hours running around town leaving Christmas Cheer around us)… we headed back to my house for jammies & hot cocoa!

This is the best Christmas gift I have ever participated in…. from watching the girls figure out where to leave the money, hearing their joyous comments about it… to knowing that so many strangers will/have received our random acts of kindness – I can’t tell you how incredible this experience was.  For me, the girls, and so many others.

Trust me, when I say – this will be a continued tradition in my family.

There is still time left over the next week… go around your house and collect spare change.  Leave a few random acts of Christmas kindness around your town this weekend… it will leave you with so much joy.

Download your FREE PRINTABLE RACKING TAGS, and start “RACKING”!