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Consider giving rather than gifting

About eight years ago, after our family witnessed our grand-nephews “opening” a humungous pile of Christmas gifts, quickly shoving them into a corner so they could quickly open the NEXT one, and then whining when they didn’t get “what they wanted”, our family made a huge change to our Christmas gifting and celebration. We reasoned that if the money we spent on unappreciated gifts had been donated to organizations that benefitted those who REALLY needed it, a huge difference could have been made for others!

We decided then that we would NO LONGER be involved in buying “useless gifts” but would donate monies to charities instead.

The following Christmas, we emailed our children, nieces, nephews, etc. that we were no longer going to be sending out gifts for Christmas but if they could talk with their children about a charity they would like us to donate to in their name, we would do that instead. The first email we received was from my sister who promptly told me that her two grandsons (the ones who had received all the presents) didn’t even KNOW what a charity was. We told her that she could either explain it to them or, if they couldn’t understand the idea, she could pick a charity herself but that there would be no gifts arriving.

Since that first Christmas, my children, their spouses, nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews have received an email after Thanksgiving asking for the name of “their” charity for this years’ donations. I am always amazed at the variety of the charities…..from the Oregon Humane Society, Youth Automotive Training Center, St. Jude’s Research Hospital, Partners in Health, Children’s Tumor Foundation, Puppies Behind Bars, promises2kids, Wings for Val, Club 21 to benefit kids with Down’s Syndrome, TeamParker4Life, Wingman Foundation, Crossroads Safe House, and Los Angeles Police Memorial Foundation are just some of the organizations that have benefitted from our plan.

Often times, I use Charity Navigator which is a great online website where you can type in the “subject” of your desired donation (e.g. medical research, children, animals, military, etc.) and they show you charities that serve that category and also rate them as to how much of every donation actually benefits the group you target.

The best part of this program is….once you’ve sent the donations to the organizations that are selected by those on your list……YOUR “shopping” is DONE leaving the remainder of the holiday season to enjoy!!!!

Enjoy the holiday season everyone, and please consider giving rather than gifting to others. It’s good for your heart in more ways than one!!!

 

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