Santa Shop is a wonderful opportunity for the children of the VFW National Home for Children to see how it feels to give gifts to others during the holiday season. The children take part in community service activities all through the year such as visiting veterans at the Battle Creek VA Hospital, holding car washes and making craft items for the craft sale at Christmas time, etc. The hours the children volunteer are put on a list and can then be used to “purchase” items from the Santa Shop for anyone they choose except for themselves. The items at Santa Shop are “priced” with minutes instead of money. A purchase can be made anywhere from 15 minutes for the smaller items to 4 hours for nicer items. This encourages community service as the more hours you have banked, the more items you may purchase. The Santa Shop items come from our generous donors throughout the year. This is a fun experience for the children, as they learn how great it feels to give to others. Even the brand new children on campus are given 2 hours to spend until they can earn their own hours over the next year. A big “thank you” to everyone who donated items for the Santa Shop. The kids had lots of nice choices for gifts for everyone in their family and they had a great time shopping! Merry Christmas from our house to yours!