"Atheist War on Christmas"

It's that time of the year again! To celebrate the War on Christmas, some of us atheists will be joining up for some fun, secular, holiday cheer at the Green Mill Restaurant in St. Paul just like we did last year (https://www.meetup.com/minnesota-atheists/events/42815992/). We will be meeting in the banquet room.

The Green Mill Restaurant (http://www.greenmill.com/st-paul-mn) is near Ayd Mill and Grand Ave. in St. Paul (57 South Hamline). Please bring a NEW gift(s) from the list below and join your family of heathens in organizing gift bags for families spending time at Children's Hospital of Minnesota (http://www.childrensmn.org/). It would be helpful to let the rest of us know what your gift donation is when you RSVP or in the Comments section so we don't offer too much of one thing and we get a good variety of gifts.

The room is available to our group from 12:00pm to 3:00pm. We'll enjoy a festive Christmas lunch beginning around 12:30 from the Green Mill menu (http://www.greenmill.com/main-menu), followed by gift wrapping, organizing, socializing, and partaking in some Christmas spirits. Depending on how many RSVP we should end up with some decent gift bags for families.

http://photos1.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/b/c/a/e/event_185568302.jpeg

Bags should be age appropriate so that some might have baby rattles for infants, Hot Wheels for school agers, and logic puzzles for adolescents, for example. The bags will be delivered the following week at a date to be determined. Those who wish to meet me at the hospital will have our picture taken with the Children's Hospital "Wish List" coordinator.

Please plan on spending about $10-$20 so we can pack these bags full! Again, it's important to indicate what donated gift(s) you will be bringing when you RSVP or in the comments section so we can have a variety of gifts.

Infant:

Hand Held Toys: Rattles, O-balls

Sound and Light Toys: Fisher Price Aquariums or Melody/Motion Soothers, Mozart Magic Cube

Mirrors

Board Books

Stacking, Sorting Toys

Toddler/Preschool:

Matchbox/Hotwheels cars and garages

Playsets with figures: Fisher Price Little People, Playmobil, Disney

Fisher-Price medical kits

Puzzles: Wooden, peg style or cardboard

Sound Story Books

School Age:

Games: Uno, Connect Four, Sequence, Sorry, Candy Land, Blink

Lego Sets: small and medium sized

Jigsaw Puzzles:[masked] pieces

Barbie/Ken dolls and clothes: all ethnic backgrounds

I Spy or Seek-N-Find Books

Adolescents:

Gift cards: $10-$15 to Best Buy, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, Michael's

Games: Playing cards, Cribbage, Chess, Monopoly, Life, Risk

Nail Polish: individual colors, nail art kits, polish remover

Sketch/Doodle Pads

Music Therapy:

Hohner plastic harmonicas

Maraccas/Chiquitas

Jazzy Jingles

Board Books/pop-up books that are songs (Wheels on the bus, Itsy bitsy spider, etc.)

Full-sized guitar(Art and Lutherie brand)

Art and Craft Materials:

Play-Doh: small tubs

Crayons/Markers: Crayola, washable, all sizes and colors

Fuzzy posters

Kits: Klutz, Alex, Toysmith, Melissa & Doug Brands

Watercolor paints

Library Books:

The New Baby by Fred Rogers

We have a Baby by Cathryn Falwell

Sometimes I feel like a Mouse by Jeanne Modesitt

Lots of Feelings by Shelley Rotner

Don't Call Me Special: A First Look at Disabilities by Pat Thomas

Favorite Characters and Types of Books:

Animals

Blues Clues

Cars & Trucks

Curious George

Dinosaurs

Doc McStuffins

Dora the Explorer

Fancy Nancy

I Spy/Look & Find

Pete the Cat

Princesses

Superheroes

Thomas the Train