Giving Back

With the holidays upon us, I find myself thinking of ways we can all give back, even if just a little. Each year we hear of great ways to help; donate to charities, buy a gift for a child in need, give to people around the globe, volunteer at a soup kitchen, the list goes on and on.

              While these are all great ideas, it can be difficult to come up with the resources to do so. Far too often we lack the time or the finances, this is a very costly time of year. Which is why I wanted to come up with ways we could all do a little more, without stretching ourselves any thinner. Here are a few of the ideas I came up with.
 
1.       When buying gifts for everyone on your list, consider spending between $2 - $5 less on each person. They won’t notice the difference and the amount you save can then be donated or used to buy toys for children in need.

2.       We all love this time of year for the food, but there are those among us who cannot afford to eat. Most of us sit down to a table with a full spread, would we really notice if one dish were to be removed? The idea being that we each take one dish off our table and donate the ingredients we would have bought for it to the food bank. We won’t notice if our dinner is missing carrots this year, but a family in need will certainly notice them being added to theirs.

3.       Start a new family tradition to help someone in your neighborhood in December. Whether it is shovelling snow or just helping to carry the bags in, a small act can make a huge difference.
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These are just a few ideas that came to me and will be acted upon this year. I am certain you all have many more thoughts. Please add your own ideas and share this post. Let’s see how many ways we can think of to brighten someone’s holidays.