All I Want For Christmas…My Charity List and Christmas List
Posted on December 5, 2008 10 Comments
My brother and I were talking the other day about our Christmas plans, and discussing what we really need vs. what we want. I really need a new camera and computer (both are on their last leg) and he really needs tools for his house. Unfortunately these are pretty big-ticket items and given that both B (my boyfriend) and my brother’s wife are out of work, we decided to give gift certificates to each other to help out with the payment. But then we realized that we would just be giving each other gift certificates with the same amount of money in them, which seems a little odd.
So we decided to give each other just Christmas cards, no gift certificates, and save the trouble of shopping for each other. This will be hard, but I think I’m going to draw him a card or create it with photography somehow to make it special and meaningful. And I’m OK with that.
The truth is, for in the last few years, I’ve been tired of filling my Christmas list with little stuff that I don’t need that will just take up space in my apartment. In the past, I’ve tried the “Make a donation to this charity in my name,” request, but I always get the “Oh, that’s not fun” response. It sounds selfish, but I think people naturally want to indulge in the gift-giving process — it says something about the giver and serves as a relationship builder to let the recipient know you’re thinking about them by picking out just the right gift.
But if you’re self-sufficient, it’s a little awkward to create a Christmas list at the request of your family. You see, I’m able to spend money on myself to get the experiences and things I really want during the year. When it comes to the holidays, I always feel strange asking for gifts I don’t need, when, for instance, I know that my younger brothers and some of my cousins in school or with kids really need a lot.
So this year, I’m going to create an extremely small wish list… gift certificates to Best Buy to supplement the computer and camera. That’s it. And I’m going to give the charity request another go around…
The charities I will probably request donations be made to this Christmas are:
Children’s Memorial Hospital (Chicago)
The Chicago Food Depository
And to start the trend, I am gonna go out on a limb this year and make donations in my co-workers’ and families’ names to those charities, and to It’s Hip To Have Heart, my cousin’s wife’s foundation.
(As some of you know, during the year, I also donate to the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation, still a fantastic and worthwhile organization.)
Gifts are great, but this year, I’m lucky enough to have everything I need.
Category: Life
Tags: giving , holidays
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December 5th, 2008 @ 6:28 am
I know what you mean. I am in a kinda sorta similar situation. Money is really tight at my house and frankly there just isn’t enough money to buy gifts with. So this year we decided to skip the gift giving and just spend time with each other. Now I just have to buy for my grandparents and my dad. I would rather have gift certificates too because the only thing I really need are cloths. Unfortunatly my grandmother doesn’t like gift certificates so I have to tell her something specific that I want and I always have the worst time coming up with something. I also really like your idea of donating to charity. If we were to do something like that we would donate to the Alzheimers Association and to Special Olympics.
December 6th, 2008 @ 2:21 am
Great point, Nicole! I am also limited by suitcase space since I am flying home for Christmas. Since I don’t see my family more than a few times a year, taking each family out to dinner and catching up seems more important than things. Since money is tight for everyone, gift cards for places they would go anyway, Starbucks, Subway, etc will make good, practical stocking stuffers. And for my boyfriend I am creating a brochure detailing the ski weekend I will treat him to in February. It’s something fun and memorable, and I will be able to spread my holiday budget farther by paying for that when we’re on the mountain.
Also, I’ve always been surprised that more people don’t put off Christmas until the 27th because department stores are liquidating after Christmas. You could get the same items, same candy, etc at 30-60% off! (This works better if you don’t have children expecting Santa!)
December 6th, 2008 @ 6:05 am
I’ve only been working for several years but I think the best gift to “give” to co-workers is a bunch of homemade cookies. Even though people tend to eat more during the holidays I think people usually enjoy having sweets around the office. And when people know you baked, they appreciate it even more.
My brother and I have always given each other a DVD, nothing too expensive but something we’ve had our eye on but never felt like buying for ourselves. If you do the charity donation, let us know how people respond. I think it’s a great idea!
December 6th, 2008 @ 6:35 pm
I agree. This is the first year that I feel like I have everything I could ever want or need. I mentioned to my boyfriend that we might want to “Adopt a Family” for Christmas next year. You can get paired up with a family in need through local charity organizations. The the families tell you what they need for Christmas and you buy it and deliver it. It means the world to them. We are doing this in my office for two families in the community. Most of what they asked for were things like socks, underwear, other clothing items, coats, boots, snow pants, and a few small toys for the children.
I think we would feel the holiday spirit much more doing something for a family in need instead of buying trinkets for each other that we really don’t need.
Lets face it, if we CAN afford to help someone else, we really should… especially in these troubled times.
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