Written by the team behind Puzzlify. Puzzlify is our product, so weigh what follows with that in mind. We've tried to make this useful even if you never use it. We're not affiliated with any shoebox appeal, gift appeal organiser, charity, parochial church council, diocese, church, chapel or community organisation.
It usually happens on a weeknight in early November. The trestle tables come out of the cupboard under the stage and get pushed together down the middle of the church hall. Then the carrier bags arrive: toothbrushes still in their packets, bars of soap, pencils held together with an elastic band, notebooks, a bag of tennis balls someone found on offer, and a mountain of knitted hats and scarves. Somebody puts the urn on. By nine o'clock there are rows of shoeboxes, each one checked, taped and labelled boy or girl and an age range, stacked by the door. This is a short note on thanking the people who turn up for that evening.
The evening itself
A packing evening looks cheerful, and it is, but it takes organising. Someone has to sort the donations into piles before anyone arrives, so each box gets a fair share. Someone keeps the list of what is and isn't allowed and gently takes out the chocolate, the liquids and anything sharp. Someone fills the gaps with things bought from their own pocket at the pound shop that afternoon. And at the end, somebody sweeps up the bits of tape and wrapping paper and stacks the tables away again.
Who we mean
- the organiser who sorted the donations into neat piles before the doors opened
- the checkers who went through every box against the leaflet
- the knitters whose hats and scarves filled half the tables
- the people who came straight from work and stayed until the last box was taped
- the children who drew pictures and wrote a short hello to go inside
- whoever ran the urn and kept the biscuits coming
When to say it
The Sunday after the packing evening, while the stack of boxes is still at the back of church, is a lovely moment: people can see what they did. Or wait until the boxes have been collected and the hall feels oddly empty, and say it then.
A good photo
The best pictures from these evenings tend to be the wide ones: the length of the hall with the trestle tables covered in little piles, or the finished stack of boxes by the door at the end of the night. Close-ups work too: a single open box packed with a hat, a toothbrush and a pencil case, or a tray of knitted hats lined up like a shop display. Keep labels and any personal details out of the frame, and if people are in the photo, follow your church's photo guidance.
Piece counts
| Pieces | Works for |
|---|---|
| 24 | a quick play on a phone |
| 48 | a short break with a cup of tea |
| 80 | a satisfying middle ground |
| 130 | a busy table of colourful piles |
| 252 | a long evening project, ideally on a tablet |
A table full of small coloured items is exactly the kind of picture that makes a bigger puzzle fun rather than frustrating.
A few lines for the note
- "Ninety-six boxes in one evening. Thank you for every one of them."
- "You sorted it all before we even arrived. That's why it worked."
- "Thank you for taking out the chocolate so kindly."
- "Every hat on that table came from your needles. Thank you."
- "Thank you for staying to stack the tables when everyone else had gone home."
The honest bit about cost
You can preview it for free and see how the photo looks as a jigsaw before you pay anything. Publishing the link uses one credit (€3.99), and bundles bring the price down. It's a digital puzzle, so nothing is printed or posted. The person you send it to just opens the link; there's no account or app, and your note appears when the last piece goes in.
Other ways to say thank you
- a card passed round at the packing evening next year, signed by everyone
- the final box count read out on Sunday with their names
- bringing the tea and biscuits next time so they can sit down
- donating the missing items early so nobody has to dash to the shop
- a jar of homemade jam or a tin of shortbread
Where Puzzlify fits
Puzzlify turns a personal photo into a private digital jigsaw that you share as a link. It isn't a printed puzzle and it isn't a public puzzle site: only people you send it to can open it. It's one idea among many, and it works best when the picture means something to the person receiving it. It's not the same as puzzlify.io, Puzzlit, Puzzly or Puzzify.
If it feels right, pick the trestle tables in the hall, the finished stack by the door or a single packed box, choose a piece count, and write a note in your own words. You can make one here.
Written by the small team behind Puzzlify (info@puzzlify.app). Not legal, religious, customs, charity law, safeguarding, photography permission or gift policy advice.