Tis the season: Part one
11 December 2006I’ve been meaning to do a Christmas gift guide since, like, Halloween, because nothing makes me happier than buying presents (don’t you all just want to be/ stay my friend now) but let’s be frank, if you haven’t started shopping you are probably screwed by now. Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. You’ll nail it next year, I’m sure. I’m doing the gift rundown anyway, broken into convenient categories (you just wait for the “Fun Things To Put in Your Office Gift Swap” entry), since all of my friends seem to be struggling with their last few people to buy for (for example: I work for three dudes now. What do I get them? Beer?).
Part I: The True Meaning of Christmas
I got into a fantastic conversation at Maggie & Webmaster Kyle’s holiday party this weekend about The Gift Of The Magi, which my dad used to reference to me all of the time when I was little (most likely because Christmas Eve on Sesame Street– which I had on a record when I was little– included their own version of it, where Bert sells his bottle cap collection to get Ernie something for his rubber duckie and Ernie sells his rubber duckie to get Bert a coveted bottle cap and then they realize that the best thing they could have on Christmas is each other. And also, that they’re in love). Someone (jeremy?) made an excellent point about the original story– yeah, she sold her hair for that watch chain that he’ll never use because he sold his watch… but hair grows back. She’ll be able to use that comb eventually. So the whole point of the story doesn’t really work. ANYWAY, Christmas is about giving and stuff. So here are some ways to do that:
1. I’ve talked about Heifer International before– it’s an organization that allows you to donate livestock to third world villages that need the animals to, you know, live. And no, you aren’t just sending them off to the slaughter, you can give geese or bees or sheep or trees (rhyming!) that help sustain life. My dad started doing this a few years ago and on Christmas we wind up shaking all of our presents going “is it a trio of rabbits, maybe? This one sounds like a flock of chicks!” Which, incidentally, is what I’m getting my bosses for Christmas.
Anyway, my brother’s mother-in-law now does a Heifer Christmas as well, and at work I saw signs that someone posted about contributing to a cow donation which, as you can imagine, is pretty hefty. In any case, it’s a great organization, and you would not believe how excited people get when they found out you got them a goat.
2. I have a small magazine subscription problem, and I recently discovered my new favorite magazine ever to which I will devote much, much space in a later gift guide. A few months ago I realized that I was getting about 12 magazines a month and not really USING them to my benefit, so I started ripping out anything that interested me during my first read-through of each magazine. This means (1) if you come over, I have lots of holey reading material for you and (2) I have an enormous file folder of Informative Stuff. It contains many, many appetizer recipes, and also an article about Good Magazine. By donating $20 through the website, you get a subscription to the magazine, which is all about other people Doing Good and how you can Do More Good (but, in a liberal, ass-kicking way and not a hippie feel good way). AND, you get to decide where your $20 gets donated. They’re looking to donate a million dollars by mid-next year, and you can pick ocean preservation, Katrina relief, developing world libraries… you name it. And you can do gift subscriptions.
3. I’ve talked about anysoldier about a million times but, once more! With feeling! Second verse same as the first: if you go to the website, you can get information on how to send a care package to soldiers that are in harm’s way, and the “point people” soliders that get the packages have volunteered to distribute the items to soliders that aren’t getting as much mail. They give lists of requests, and you can pick boys or girls, and what branch of the military you want. And, if you’re like me, then you spent over 3 hours on Christmas cards this weekend, which means it would be really, really easy for you to write a letter to someone in Iraq and send it, which is what they request more than anything else. And it feels really strange to write to a complete stranger but once you get into the “here’s who I am and what I do and I hope you’re okay and I’m thinking of you” trend then you do just fine. I promise. If you’re more into homefront-based action, unmetneeds.com gives grants to military families to help with living costs.
4. Lastly, this is my new favorite organization– so, some of my hobbies are equitable to those of an 80 year old retiree, and I crochet. A lot. Whenever I’m in front of the television which, as you know, is quite a lot. And while I like making full-sized blankets, I generally do those as wedding or engagement presents and by the time I’m done with them I’ve spend so much time working on them that I (a) hate how it turned out, and think it’s the ugliest thing ever and/or (b) merely can’t stand the sight of it and want it away from me as soon as possible. So I spent a lot of time making baby-sized blankets, which started when I began working in a nearly all-female industry where my coworkers are popping out midgets left and right. And during a baby lull when I was still making blankets I started looking for something to do with all them and found Project Linus (get it? Like, Linus on Peanuts?) which I love. On the website they have a bunch of different chapters listed, and there’s a great chance that one is near you. You contact the chapter head via email and they tell you where to send your blankets. Project Linus then donates them to children that are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need (quoting the website directly). And if you want to keep making blankets for people as gifts, you could do that and then spend 2 days making a junior version of their blanket in matching colors, take a picture of it, donate it, and give the recipient of the “real” blanket the picture of the little blanket along with an explanation of where it went. And everyone wins.
3 Responses to “Tis the season: Part one”
December 11th, 2006 at 1:56 pm
So my 7 (recently
year old neice rallied her 2nd grade class to start a fundraiser project for Heifer Intn’l when she heard about it on NPR with my sister. She gave a report to the entire school and they managed to raise nearly $1,000 (these are 2nd graders!) and bought the farm (not the proverbial “bought the farm”, but bought what might equate to a farm). We’re so proud of our “Under-10″ politically active kin.
December 11th, 2006 at 4:20 pm
Thanks for the kind words about Heifer International. I joined Heifer as new media director last year and really appreciate it when someone blogs about us.
We have a new BlogRaising program that lets bloggers like you help us get the word out about Heifer and raise the money we need to do our work. To learn more, just go to http://www.heifer.org/onlinecommunityfundraising
I hope you are able to take part.
Again thanks for the good words.
December 11th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
Very inspirational list! Thanks for the tips. Really.
And, can you teach me how to crochet more than a long, snaking line?