I can’t take full credit for the idea, since giving to charities is fairly common. I will, however, give credit to my husband for drafting the email and making it happen. We both agree this was one of the most stress-free holidays we’ve ever had and the only thing that changed was our way of handling the gifts.

One of the things we do at work, and one I would love to see more of us doing is, we take a family from the local women’s shelter and we buy them Christmas. That means the Turkey dinner (and much more), the Christmas presents and the stuff to wrap them in (the mother’s go wrapped so she has some surprises left, but the childrens gifts we leave for her to wrap).

The local shelter actually provides a list of their “wishes” with their ages, clothes sizes and all, which makes it very easy to buy for them.

I think I will go over to my own site and promote this idea now for next year.

Thanks for the nudge! And HAPPY NEW YEAR

However, I’ve often thought of giving to WorldVision in honor of someone else. The catalogs that tell you how much you can give for a family to have its own dairy cow or goat or handful of chickens to provide them a continuous supply of food is just such a great idea.