Something about little girl dresses leaves me starry-eyed and tilting my head and missing my girls who were little just a few days ago and missing my girl who will never be big at all.
Even if I hadn’t lost a daughter I think it would still be hard for me to part with the piles of tulle and satin and ruffle-butt tights. But because my oldest is 17, I know what will happens with the stacks of dresses I continue to fold into storage bins. They will sit untouched and every year I will debate on selling them or packing them in a bag for Goodwill and I will do nothing more than put them right back into their awaiting bins so I can rinse, wash and repeat next year.
While doing my annual nostalgic dance with dresses of Christmas past, I decided I might be able to part with them if I knew they were going to someone who needed them so I posted this status on Facebook:
I was just going through Christmas dresses from my girls and was thinking what a shame it is that they were only worn once. I know there are a lot of people out there in financial need and new Christmas clothes are not in the budget this year. If you are one of them, I have sizes up to 6x and will mail the clothes to you at no charge. Message me on this page or send me an email at fourplusanangel@gmail.com and what size you need and they are yours. (If you have new or gently used holiday clothes that you wouldn’t mind sending to someone, leave the outfit and size in the comments and we will see if we can dress some kids up this year.)
Well my little wall post went a little crazy and I’ve been overwhelmed by offers to donate and also families in need. I’ve been alternating between a fancy Excel spreadsheet and breathing into a paper bag, but so far a crowd of generous people have given dress clothes to 26 children just since Friday. If you will excuse the brain dump I’m just going to list what we currently have available and what we still need and then I’m going to hope that my comments and email inbox (fourplusanangel@gmail.com) fill up with people in need of the outfits available, people who can donate to fill the current needs and people who are unable to afford a holiday outfit for their girl or boy this year because we will find one, I promise.
I will continuously update this post as donations and requests come in: (updated 12/10 8 pm)
Dress clothes available
6 mos girl
6 mos girl
12 mos girl
18-24 mos girl
24 mos girl
3T girl
3T girl
3T girl
3T girl
Dress clothes needed
4T boy
5T girl
5T girl
5T boy
6x girl
6 boy
7 girl
7-8 boy
Now can I just say I love this? I love everyone helping and I love everyone who wants something special for their kids this year and this is just the best. That is all. Thank you. Truly. The best.
Comments
Powered by Facebook Comments
Oh, I heart you for doing this. What a thoughtful, sweet, and caring person you are. But I already knew that 🙂 Glad to see so many clothes will go to families in need this holiday season.
Another brilliant idea! This might be a silly question but does a Christmas outfit need to be very Christmassy? If not, I have some things and would be happy to send them. xo
No, just nicer clothes. If you are interested in sending let me know what sizes and I will match you up. Thanks Lanie!
I have boys clothes in 5t and 2t – can you let me know where to send them? Thanks again for doing this and letting us help. Thinking of you. Take care.
You are truly an amazing person for doing this!
I have told you this already, but I love this SO very much.
If you don’t mind sending outside of Canada we would love to have it!
You are simply wonderful, Jess.
I’m sure you’re overwhelmed by this project that’s taken on a life of its own.
But what a gift your unending love for your children has become to everyone.
Yes. You and your children are a gift to us all.
You are so sweet Julie, I needed this project, it’s been so good for me.
This is wonderful. I just donated a few of dresses to Goodwill. It always makes me sad to let go of clothes.
This is such a wonderful idea. Thanks for taking the time to organize all this and help so many out!
Thanks for all your support and for spreading the work Meredith.
This is so nice, so much nobler than my proclivity to wallow in catalog dreams and wish for a little girl of my own to doll up. We sent all of Celia’s clothes to the grandparents, and have a goal to go through them soon. Rather than save them all for what-ifs, we’ll try to follow your lead. Looks like this might be something you’ll do again next year – maybe by then we can be part of it…
Oh it’s not THAT noble, I still have everything of Hadley’s and probably always will. You have years and years of Celia’s things and I can only imagine how hard it it to go through them, let alone to even think about giving anything away. Lots of love to you, I’ll be thinking of you through the holidays.
Hey Jessica – Since I am already shopping for the for the 3-6 month baby boy I will also grab a 12m boy outfit.
xoxo
Oh yay, thank you!!! You’re the best. xo
That is so awesome. We were faced with a dilema when we were packing up some of Chunky’s small clothes. We debated giving them to those in need but…but in the odd chance that we are blessed…probablly not…with another child…again probably not, we would love to be able to have this stuff. When I’m 40 and my eggs are shriveled, I’ll let them go.
I’m just like you, I kept everything until there wasn’t a chance in the world that we were having more.
I love this so much I am thinking of starting this at work. What a perfectly beautiful idea!
Such a wonderful project! I wish we had any dress clothes in the closet to contribute!
Love this! I’ll go check my kids’ closet once they are awake to see if I have any of the needed items. Ruffle-butt tights – I had completely forgotten about those and I really miss them.
Me too!
Lovely, sweet friend. xo