It's one of overseas children's favourite times of the year, following up on the Operation Christmas Child effort.

Portage la Prairie program media coordinator Clarise Klassen explains children across the pond are currently opening their Christmas gifts.

Children in Paraguay receiving shoeboxes of gifts"Operation Christmas Child -- everybody thinks that that happens at Christmas, or at least in November. When we collect shoeboxes for children overseas who are in troubled circumstances, what's interesting is the shoeboxes actually get delivered to them and get shipped overseas, and this takes time. They don't actually get the shoeboxes at Christmas. They get the shoeboxes any time between January and June."

Nations receiving the shoeboxes include Haiti, Chile, El Salvador, Senegal, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone, Uruguay, and Costa Rica. The Canadian aspect of the program is run by Samaritan's purse, and Canadians provided 730,577 shoeboxes last year full of stuffed with toys, school supplies and hygiene items. Over more 40,000 of them were from Manitoba, with almost 2,200 from the Portage la Prairie area. Last year Canadians increased their giving by about 30,000 shoeboxes. The same increase occurred from 2013 to 2014.

Klassen adds, "So, right now, a child between the ages of 2 and 14 is opening a shoebox. And it's like Christmas morning for them, even though it's hot and sunny and no snow in sight. And they're just very excited. And we just wanted to give people a picture of that -- that this is our favourite time of year when children are opening shoeboxes. And we get to hear how excited they are, and how happy they are, and how blessed they feel."

Since 1993, Samaritan's Purse has used O.C.C. to distribute more than 124-million gift-filled shoeboxes to kids in 130 countries.