99 Acts of Kindness You Can Do With Your Family

The last few years, I’ve tried to promote a different way of thinking with my kids at Christmas. Instead of just being focused on gifts, and what material things they want to have, we’ve started a tradition of doing acts of kindness throughout the month for others. Each day we aim to accomplish something, no matter how small, for others. It’s been a fun activity for us, and also a neat way to turn the season around.

I’ve been thinking of how I can help others join in the Acts of Kindness adventure, so I’ve put this list of 99 acts of kindness up for you. Some are free, some aren’t. Some involve planning, some are spontaneous. Some are silent, some are in the spotlight. I just hope that they help inspire you and your family to kindness.

Acts of Kindness For Anytime

1. Smile at people when you walk by them.
2. Put coins in parking meters.
3. Hand out water bottles (or homemade hot chocolate, if cold outside) to construction workers.
4. Take cookies to the librarian.
5. Pick up trash from the park/your neighbourhood.
6. Donate baby supplies, maternity or baby clothes to a local pregnancy help centre.
7. Bring in your neighbour’s garbage/blue bins from the curb.
8. Round up all the random shopping carts in a parking lot and put them back in the corral.
9. Put quarters into the shopping carts.
10. Tape a package of microwave popcorn to a movie rental box.
11. Grocery shop for a family in need and deliver them to their door.
12. Pay for the person behind you in drive-thru line.
13. Donate supplies, materials, gift cards, or time to the local humane society.
14. Take books, colouring materials and clothing to the local woman’s shelter.
15. Write a letter to a Canadian soldier on duty.
16. Buy a grocery store gift card with your points/rewards and hand it to the person behind you in line.
17. Deliver a homemade goodies basket to your local fire department station.
18. Tape formula coupons onto the baby formula display.
19. Tape coins to a vending machine.
20. Volunteer at a soup kitchen.
21. Volunteer at the local food bank.
22. Donate children’s books to a local daycare or school.
23. Put some diapers and wipes on change tables in public places.
24. Leave a roll of quarters and a sample of laundry soap at the laundromat.
25. Leave a few loonies scattered through the toys at the dollar store.
26. Make care packages for the local teen home or homeless shelter (include personal hygiene items like toothpaste and deodorant, socks, stretchy gloves, gum, etc.)
27. Be a coupon fairy, and stick coupons to products at the grocery store.
28. Leave a positive review on websites/social media for a company that deserves it.
29. Cook a meal for someone who needs it (just had a baby, sick family member, death on the family, etc).
30. Hold the door open for people.
31. Mail an unexpected card to someone special.
32. Leave your recently read magazines at your doctor’s office.
33. Hide encouraging/love notes for your family members in special hiding spots (lunch boxes, dresser drawers, etc).
34. Clean house for a friend or family member when they are away. (Leave a meal in the freezer for when they get home!)
35. Let someone go ahead of you in line.
36. Leave an extra tip for the serving staff at a restaurant (especially if you feel they don’t deserve it. They might need it most.)
37. Tape money on candy machines.
38. Donate blood.
39. Collect food for the local food bank.
40. Give up your seat for someone who needs it.
41. Help someone move.
42. Cut your hair and send to a wig company for cancer wigs.
43. Help someone load their groceries into their vehicle.
44. Tape a bus ticket to the bus stop sign.
45. Say thank you to someone “just doing their job” (like the bus driver, garbage collector, or janitor).
46. Donate to charity.
47. Leave a box of diapers on the doorstep of a family with a baby.
48. If the ticket you bought for parking in a parking lot has time on it, give it to a person just pulling in.
49. Be a designated driver.
50. Leave a bunch of flowers on someone’s doorstep.
51. Make activity packs of colouring sheets and crayons to leave at the hospital waiting room.
52. Call a family member you haven’t talked to in a while.
53. Clean the house for a pregnant woman, new mom, sick friend, friend with a family death, busy mom, …anyone.
54. Leave a note in a library book.
55. Offer to carry groceries for someone.
56. Help someone whose car has broken down: offer CAA help if you have and it’s needed.
57. Send (or fill out) a letter of thanks or recommendation for an employee at a store when they’ve done a great job helping you.
58. Give someone a genuine compliment.
59. Knit small baby blankets and hats to donate to the local children’s hospital.
60. When your punch/stamp card for a store is ready to cash in, leave it for someone to find and use.
61. Strike up a conversation with an elderly person.
62. Park at the back of the parking lot instead of choosing the closest spot.
63. Pump someone’s gas and wash their car windows.

Spring

1. Hand out carnations to women in your community on Mother’s Day weekend.
2. Plant flowers somewhere needed (or unexpected!)
3. Start more tomato seeds than you will need for your garden, and give the seedlings away.
4. Hide Easter Eggs for others to find (or plastic eggs with small toys).

Summer

1. Weed and water a neighbour’s lawn/flowers.
2. Cut a neighbour’s grass.
3. Wash someone’s car (or leave a gift certificate for them to go to a car wash.)
4. Bury some play coins/jewels in a playground sandbox.
5. Write something positive or encouraging on the sidewalk in chalk.
6. Plant a tree.
7. Set up a FREE Lemonade stand.
8. Leave chalk, bubbles, skipping ropes, balls at a playground.

Fall

1. Rake a neighbour’s leaves.
2. Share your vegetable gardening harvest extras.

Random Acts of Christmas Kindness

1. Put candy canes into mailboxes around your neighbourhood.
2. Leave your mailman a present.
3. Donate to a toy collection campaign.
4. Give an elderly neighbour a poinsettia.
5. Sing Christmas carols at a retirement home.
6. Hand out candy canes.
7. Make handmade Christmas cards and hand them out a retirement home.
8. Set up a free gift wrapping station.
9. Pay for someone’s Santa photo.
10. Buy gifts that help charities or people with special needs.
11. Invite someone with no family to have Christmas dinner with you.

Winter

1. Shovel a neighbour’s driveway.
2. Draw CARS style eyes on snowy windshields.
3. Put salt (or alternative) down on an icy section of your neighbourhood sidewalk.
4. Make and distribute hug scarves to people outside looking cold.
5. Collect coats to donate to families in need. (This organization is in Alberta, but you can collect them on your own!)

 Homeschool Related Acts of Kindness

1. Donate the curriculum books you no longer need to a family who needs them.
2. Babysit another homeschooler’s kids during the day so they can do their errands/chores/shopping.
3. Pay for someone’s homeschool conference admission.
4. Pray for/encourage/help a new homeschooler in your community.
5. Host a curriculum swap night.
6. Offer free tutoring in a subject you specialize in to another homeschooled family/student.

Now – get out there and start your Acts of Kindness adventure! 😀

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Lisa Marie Fletcher

Owner at The Canadian Homeschooler

Lisa Marie Fletcher is a mom of 5 with 15+ years of homeschooling experience. She started The Canadian Homeschooler in 2010 as a way to support the homeschooling community in Canada.

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