Not Your Average Christmas Gift

Just so we’re all clear, I’m not hating on presents. As a matter of fact, I’m now going to talk about some gifts that keep on giving (oh, come on, cliché police, you knew this would happen eventually).

Let me start off by briefly describing what my family has started doing on Christmas and on birthdays, so that you guys know this is not some empty words. So, we’ve pretty much ended “gifts” between our members. What we do now instead is shop for goats.

I’ll clarify. Our family came to the understanding that especially on special days like Christmas, rather than spending money on things that we will eventually get tired of anyways, we will bless the lives of children and families who are in need. Many humanitarian organizations like World Vision, Christian Children's Fund (CCF), Free the Children, etc have online catalogues where you can purchase materials for people around the world. Livestock, for example, like goats, pigs, even rabbits and chickens, can give a family an alternative source of income so that they can eat and can afford to send kids to school. We once even bought an olive tree for a family. I didn’t even know olive grew on trees before that…

There are a variety of other gifts like mosquito nets and soccer balls. And guess what – basic medical supplies will only cost you $1. Think of how much money you spend buying Christmas gifts, and then just think of what you could do with that amount.

And maybe you don’t feel too comfortable telling your friends that you bought a few pigs in their name instead of those nice earrings they’ve been hinting about. No problem! Why not shop around the online stores of these organizations? Most of them have incredibly fashionable, reasonably-priced merchandise. Rather than buying my friend a sweater from some fancy name brand, I could buy an organic shirt from Free the Children (I have several and they’re so gorgeous), or maybe an African bracelet from Invisible Children.

It’s just as easy to do something locally. Donate to your local food bank. Clean out your closet and drop off some coats and gloves at shelters or thrift stores. Organizations like Salvation Army give you the opportunity to sponsor someone so that they can have a proper Christmas meal instead of shivering out in the cold.

Presents are obviously a big part of Christmas, so this was a practical approach as to how you can also give back with your gifts. My logic is, if you’re going to spend that money anyway, why not spend it on a good cause? I mean, we have 364 other days in the year to buy stuff we want, don’t we?

What do you think? Do you think you’ll be shopping a bit differently this year?