Sunday, December 21, 2008

Countdown to Christmas: 4

A lot of people do it really tough at Christmas - financially, emotionally and physically - and I wish I could do more to help them. Don't we all? Here are some suggestions on what you can do when spreading happiness and joy with a smile and a happy demeanour just aren't enough.

Have you checked out the
ABC giving tree in Canberra? You can buy non-perishable food and/or a gift for a child and deliver it to the studios, where'll they'll distribute the goodies to the Salvation Army. Most of the department stores also have giving trees - such a good thing for those kids who really miss out.


© Copyright World Vision Australia 2008. All rights reserved.

Used with permission. http://www.worldvision.com.au/ or call 13 32 40.

One of the things I've done some research on this year is the charity gift. It's where you purchase training, animals, supplies or basic human necessities like safe drinking water from a charity, and they send you a card or email you an e-card. You can then give that card to your friends and family, having purchased a gift on their behalf. Some of the charities where you can do this are:

http://www.usefulgifts.org/
http://www.oxfamunwrapped.com.au/
http://www.caregifts.org.au/home.asp
http://www.worldvision.com.au/Smiles/GiftCatalogue/
http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.204586/


© Copyright World Vision Australia 2008. All rights reserved.

Used with permission. http://www.worldvision.com.au/ or call 13 32 40.

Some of these sites even have gift registries! Now that beats a Myer gift registry any day, I reckon!

If you have any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

5 comments:

  1. I love these- last year Kim gave me a pig and a bike for a midwife!

    This year I've asked for another pig and some vegies and and organic orchard
    (I'm greedy!)

    The cards are really nice and you know you're doing amazing things!

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  2. Each year I go to the Kmart wishing tree and the kids choose a gift for a child of the same age/gender as they are.
    So far it's been a non-event but this year is the first time that Izaak has really started to understand and really think about other kids who have much less than he does.
    One year I'd love to forgoe the christmas crap and go to somewhere like the Red Cross/Salvos etc and help with christmas lunch for the homeless or going to visit an aged care facility to spend the day with someone who would otherwise be alone. I think it would be a great day and there are so many people who have such interesting stories to tell.

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  3. these are great links, I heard about oxfam unwrapped on the ABC and am looking into that

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  4. My kids helped pick out presents and when they saw the bag full of gifts they both said, Wow, that's a lot of gifts for that family! And they both seemed happy about that, which made ME happy. It's hard to get across to kids how fortunate they are. I thought my older son would be jealous when he found out what toy we had gotten for the little boy in the family, but he wasn't. I told him that might be the only toy the boy got this year, so we wanted it to be a really nice one, and my son's eyes got big. Only one toy? Wow. He's starting to understand, I think.

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  5. Such great gifts, we gave a few of these to family members, in particular, those that are super hard to buy for - or in my case, a difficult mother-in-law!

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