Saturday, November 15, 2008

Christmas is fast approaching...What Is Your Christmas Gifting Strategy?

Every year my partner’s family has an Adult Grab Bag for Christmas. The names are drawn each Thanksgiving. Each adult buys 1 gift. Not having to buy for every single adult, the Grab Bag was an economical way to deal with a very large family.

This year, in light of the economy, each adult family member has decided to donate to a charity, in lieu of purchasing a gift. I set up a Donation Link List that lists Local and National Charity Donation Pages to make it easy for the less tech savvy to find Donation Pages.

It’s not too late to adopt a similar Christmas Gifting Strategy.
Instead of the Gag Gift Grab Bag at work, why not make a difference and donate to a worthwhile charity?

Instead of buying Uncle Bob yet another silly Christmas tie, why not donate to a local Food Pantry to help your fellow neighbors who have fallen on hard times?

The links for the Donation Pages are at the top of my blog post, just under the blog header.

Click on the Charity name to go to that Charity’s Donation Page.

Do you have a favorite Charity? Post it to the comment section and I will add a link for that charity's donation page in my Donation List. Website addresses without the corresponding charity name will not be posted.

I will leave the Donation List at the top of my blog posts throughout the holidays.


2 comments:

  1. My DH has tried to convince his office to quit the grab bag and just sponser a family for the holidays but for some reason some of his coworkers take offense at not buying gifts. At least they have gone from everyone buying something for everyone to a grab but only one year did the charity idea go over. What was worse was that last year they said it was optional but when my DH tried to opt out of it they told him it couldn't. Very frustrating. Especially since this year we have a smaller holiday budget and would rather put his work money towards a charitable cause.

    I plan on putting a few charity names on my wishlist as an option but I doubt anyone will take that hint. One way that I am trying to make a bit of a difference is that I plan on buying as many consumable gifts for people as possible so if they have items like spices or restaurant gift certificates on their list they will be getting that instead of something else.

    One of our favorite charities is the local chapter of the Epilepsy Foundation. Our local chapter webpage is http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org/local/chicago/index.cfm

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  2. Last year I was on leave during the holidays. The prior year my co-workers really put the pressure on to join the grab bag. It just wasn't in my budget to buy a foolish gag gift. I went against the tide and declined to participate.

    I wish I would have thought of this back then, I would have told them I'm donating a corresponding dollar amount to charity instead of participating in the grab bag.

    I have added the Epilepsy Foundation's donation page to the Donation Link List at the top of my blog.

    Thanks!

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