We really will make up and send out each shoebox created online. Each gift you choose online will have a corresponding gift packed inside an actual shoebox. On some occasions we may have to substitute one gift for another similar gift if stocks run out.

We may need to add further gifts to your shoebox in the unlikely event that your shoebox ends up being too empty. But otherwise, what you select online is what we put into your shoebox.

Each gift price is better than average high street or online prices and we buy all of our gifts in bulk in order to achieve this. When sourcing these items, it is important to us that they are good quality gifts the children will love. £5 of your £20 donation goes towards project costs including shipping. Any surplus funds from your donation goes toward covering the cost of purchasing shoeboxes, running Shoebox Online and towards the work of Samaritan’s Purse with children and families around the world.

We have a warehouse staffed by dedicated volunteers already actively involved in Operation Christmas Child, who will be preparing your shoeboxes. They will assemble the shoeboxes, fill them with your gifts and messages, and prepare them to be shipped overseas.

Because it will take time to purchase the gifts, assemble and pack each shoebox and prepare them for shipment, your shoebox probably won’t be sent off in time for Christmas. However, each shoebox will end up in the hands of a child in need in the next few months – and they really won’t mind receiving it after Christmas.

The boxes for this year’s Shoebox Online campaign will be delivered to children in Moldova, who currently live in particularly difficult family situations.