Americans will spend over $500 billion dollars on Christmas gifts in a matter of weeks. (Um, what?!!!!!!!!!)
As we buy, let’s remember to use our money as a force for good. I’m purposing to do just that, and it takes more thought & research than the way I usually buy Christmas gifts. Here are my findings/ideas.
1. Purchase from socially-conscious vendors (ideally ones employing people in poverty).
These are people we know doing great work:
http://threecordshaiti.com – Britney is from Bismarck + started this in Haiti!
http://www.karamacollection.com – A Young Life friend of ours runs this.
http://www.connectedinhope.org/shop/ – We saw their entire operation + took photos of these weavers while in Ethiopia.
https://preemptive-love.myshopify.com/ – Goods made by refugees fleeing the war.
Here’s a post with many suggestions:
http://jenhatmaker.com/blog/2014/11/29/buy-once-give-twice-gifts-with-a-conscience
2. Shop local! Custom artwork, local boutiques, tickets to a play, enrichment courses, a photo shoot. Last year I had this artist paint a scene from my bro’s and my favorite movie. SO RAD. I also recommend Molly Nath.
3. Give an experience. This is great for kids. We’re taking our niece and nephews to SkyZone this year to jump around like crazy people. Other ideas: camp in a yurt, pedis at the hair school, foam pit adventure, helicopter ride (surprisingly cheap), guitar lessons, snowboarding.
4. Give kids “Money To Give”. Sit down with the Arms of Love Christmas Gift Catalog and they can choose to buy chickens, goats, support a feeding program, etc. We sponsor kids at Arms of Love and have visited them in the Philippines. We vouch for their life-changing work! We did a gift catalog with our niece and nephews last year and they had so much fun picking stuff out for other kids!
5. If you’re an Amazon freak like me, be sure to use the AmazonSmile platform. Same prices, same products, same account, same everything except AmazonSmile donates 0.5% of your purchase price on eligible products to your favorite charity. Just select a charity and shop as usual!
6. Make a donation in someone’s name.
My recs:
http://www.preemptivelove.org/see_beyond_despair_aleppo_syria – They are on the ground in Syria in the worst humanitarian crisis of our time.
http://www.armsoflove.org – We sponsor children here + have seen their work firsthand in the Philippines.
http://www.hopechest.org – We sponsor a little girl here + have seen their work firsthand in Ethiopia.
http://http://donate.worldvision.org/syrian-refugee-crisis-1/?xxwvCampaign=1068089 http://www.compassion.com – Love on people who are DESPERATELY needing it.
7. Sponsor a child.
http://www.armsoflove.org – We sponsor children here and visited them last year.
http://www.hopechest.org – We sponsor a little girl and visited her in January. She’s the one pictured at the top of this post. :)
http://www.worldvision.org/sponsor-a-child – Choose a child to sponsor by their birth date! How cool would it be to build a relationship with a child who has the same birthday as you?!
Comment with your ideas and let’s do some good!