alternative giving

This is a repost for all those in the blogosphere who find themselves stressed out or at a loss as the shopping days disappear!

Can't figure out what to get that special someone? Have you considered alternative giving?

• Buy Local: purchase a special handmade gift at your local craft sale or from a neighborhood store you can walk to.
• Gifts You Have Created or Recycled: Books, CDs, videos, crafts, wood carving, paintings, and your baked treats. Write a booklet of your favorite recipes, stories, jokes, life experiences, wisdom and poetry.
• Gifts of Experience: taking others to see Christmas lights, Christmas Eve services, relatives, concerts, plays, or museums.
• Gifts of Ourselves: breakfast in bed, car washing, garage cleaning, babysitting, yard work, back rubs, or other forms of uninterrupted time.
• Gifts in Honor of Our Loved Ones: consider donating to a charity or worthy non-profit organization in honor of your family and friends. Another idea is to give 25% of what you spent last year to the needy.

You can read more on my parish peace & justice commission website and at Alternatives for Simple Living.

I like the last option - gifts to those who are really needy in honor of my loved ones. A few years ago I bought a goat through Heifer in honor of my family. This year I'm thinking about buying a beehive kit from Mercy Corps for my family.

You can also download some nifty Buy Me Nothing Coupons.