So to start, here's a list of things you can do this holiday season to bring some joy:
If you know a family who has lost someone:
- Make copies of all of the pictures you have of that someone and give them to the family. It will cost you very little and will be priceless to the family.
- Secretly adopt the family - anonymously leave them food, gifts, and mementos of their loved one. The last thing any family wants is to forget, or to think that others have forgotten.
- One of the problems I have with Christmas is that my family doesn't really do without. So why should we receive gifts when we already have what we need? If you know a family that is going without, give them a grocery card to make a Christmas meal. Leave them some presents. Do something nice that will help them out this season. It means so much more to have something special when you usually don't.
- Offer to watch the kid(s) while they get out of the house. They'll probably do something practical, but encourage them to go sit at a coffee shop with a good book.
- Anonymously leave a gift card for Target or Toys 'R' Us. Kids are expensive and I can't imagine how parents do it on one income.
- Anonymously leave a bag of clothes in the child's size - hopefully you can free the parent up to buy them a special toy for Christmas instead of just the necessities.
- Leave a decent tip, especially if you live in a state where they aren't required to pay restaurant servers minimum wage.
- Be nice. If your server or cashier is flustered, imagine how crappy a day they must be having. A few kind words could turn that around.
- Don't forget babies and teenagers. They need items too.
- For each toy, buy a winter hat. Kids may want toys, but they need hats. Go crazy and venture into mittens, scarves, and socks, too.
- There's a great program that will donate a nearly indestructible laptop to a third world country if you buy one for someone - approximately $400. If you don't have a kid to give it to, donate it. You can save the world and the country with one purchase.
3 comments:
My conflict with Christmas has led me to be a big bah-humbug about the whole thing. I've been instructed to get out of my funk this year because its my daughter's first Christmas, but I still find it hard. I do an adopt a family at work and this year's family has a little boy that is Sprout's age, so that should help. We have a rental next door that has lots of kids, I'm thinking of maybe dropping off some toys for them.
I LOVE those ideas.
Many people don't think of others and they spoil their own kids with their every desire (and their own desires for what the kids should want to have). I did that when my kids were younger. Until they started growing up to expect everything off their list. I quit doing that about 4 or 5 years ago! They get two things off their list. Period. If others buy things for them I will pass the list leftovers on to them if they want to know specific items, otherwise it's whatever they want to get them.
Christmas was always harder for me to enjoy when I didn't have kids. Now I'm really into it. I find that I often ask others to not get me things so my kids can have the things instead. It means so much to them and the last couple of years have been extremely hard.
Christmas should be about others and we should use it to help our kids learn about those who go without. Kudos to your early start on this. Make sure the kids are involved when they are big enough (Kitten is probably old enough to minimally involove, I don't think younger than that really is worth the effort yet....)
The food shelf near us always suggests a holiday bag this time of year:
2 cans of corn
2 cans of green beans
1 large can of sweet potatoes
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 large box of instant potatoes
2 packets of gravy mix
turkey stuffing
1 large jello
1 can fruit cocktail
cranberry sauce
corn bread mix
sweetened condensed milk
$10-$20 grocery gift card for a turkey (or whatnot)
It's all non-perishable and would make a good sized holiday meal. Of course you can add to it, it's just a good basic list.
Another good idea I've heard is that while food shelves/shelters typically have lots of donations/ volunteers this time of year, take the chance to commit yourself to doing something in March or June when people still need help, but no one is thinking about it. Put it on the calendar.
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