Turn Christmas on its head with a reverse advent calendar

On this 24th day of Christmas, be a true love and give to your local community centre or food bank.

That's the message that the Welcome Inn Community Centre is spreading around town, asking families to create a reverse advent calendar.

I'm hoping that it helps my kids think that advent or Christmas is not something you consume, that it's something that you're a part of.- Randell Neudorf

The novel idea lets families get involved in creating a box with 12 or 24 slots, in which they can add one item a day until Christmas Eve, and then donate the whole thing to charity.

The movement has taken on a life of its own thanks to the attention of another big-hearted Hamilton family.

The Neudorfs have been documenting their own experience putting together the calendar on social media and blogging about it, earning a lot of attention from friends and family. A modest Facebook post about their experience has already garnered over 2,500 views.

"As soon as I saw (the idea), I knew it would be a good fit for doing with my family," says Randell Neudorf, who is also a pastor at The Commons. 

"For my family, I'm hoping that it helps my kids think that advent or Christmas is not something you consume, that it's something that you're a part of. You're giving in to what's happening during advent and not just consuming knick-knacks and trinkets and candy. We wanted that built in to our season."

Neudorf says he and his family, including his 14-year-old daughter, 11-year-old son and 4-year-old son, have started their box early so they can deliver it to the centre before Christmas. The children take turns each day to pick one item from their pantry to add to the box.

"The only rule we say is that you can't give something you don't like," he says. "It has to be something you're willing to eat or use."

"I'd really like to see the Welcome Inn's pantry full this season," says Neudorf.

Already on their Day 3, the family has donated spaghetti, wedding soup and toothpaste. Welcome Inn recommends that canned foods and non-perishables make the best donations.

"Often we find that protein items go really fast, so we're looking at things like canned tuna and salmon, peanut butter or other nut butters, pasta sauces, even canned beans and canned vegetables," says Kellner.

She says the feedback so far has been great, with friends and families as far as Caledonia picking up on the idea. Organizations are helping out with the creative concept in many ways - the Hamilton Huskies have pledged their own reverse advent calendar to the local Ronald McDonald House.

"People who aren't even connected to Welcome Inn are taking on this challenge and giving to their own food banks. Which I think is just beautiful," says Kellner.

 From getting to giving

Jen Kellner, executive director at Welcome Inn, says the idea came from the centre's community programs coordinator who drew from her experience with food access programs.

"We were chatting about the commercialisation of Christmas and some of her family traditions and advent, and we had this idea of what if there was some way to count down towards the season that flipped the idea of getting stuff to giving," she says.

The centre then sat down to figure out what kind of items were needed for the food bank and how they could best support families to give back. As a small centre in the north end, they struggle to get the word out, but the unique take on family activity has caught on quickly.

The Welcome Inn is open all of December, and welcomes anyone who may have a last-minute food emergency.