Following the traditional Christmas season calendar, Cross Catholic Outreach, a 501c(3) that works in more than 29 nations to help impoverished families have access to clean water, food, shelter and medical supplies, is extending its popular Box of Joy program through the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 2020.

“The Magi, complete strangers to the Holy Family, searched far and wide for the baby Jesus so they could bless Him with the best they had to give. We want to follow their same example and give families the opportunity to bless little children in impoverished nations to experience the joy of the Christmas season,” said Jim Cavnar, president of Cross Catholic Outreach.

Americans have already been exceptionally generous this year, pledging more than 103,000 boxes through Box of Joy, a 24 percent increase over last year. As families finish their Christmas shopping and celebrate the joyous season together, they still have the time to send shoeboxes to children who would not otherwise receive anything for the celebration of Jesus’ birth.

“Asking families to set aside their time and resources to intentionally think of others during the Christmas season is already countercultural,” said Abby Johnson, Box of Joy Ambassador and founder of And Then There Were None. “Asking them to extend that generosity through the Epiphany, when most of the country has already taken down their Christmas decorations, is certainly radical in nature but makes perfect sense from a Catholic perspective.”

To participate in Box of Joy, families can either pack shoeboxes of their own and send them to the sorting center in Miami, Florida, by December 31st or they can go online and Sponsor-A-Box through the Box of Joy website, picking out the gender and age of the child they want to send a box to and paying $25 to fill it, plus $9 shipping.

For more information on Box of Joy, see www.boxofjoy.org.