- Joined
- Dec 18, 2003
This idea will not appeal to everyone by any stretch. Families, friends and work groups develop holiday gift giving traditions, and many of those are very happy traditions!
Personally, I have reached a point where some of the gift exchanges among all of these groups (family, friends, work groups) have seemed a bit silly to me for years. (Kids are the exception, at least for me). We seem to set a budget range, make a small "wish list" of items within that budget (or worse, not make a list), and then exchange rather meaningless items that most of us neither need or want.
I was talking to one of my close friends and also one of my brothers this year about a new idea. It was a bit too late for this year (with one exception - I'll get to that) but in the future, I've decided that my "wish list" will contain only one thing - please make a donation to your favorite charity instead of buying a gift. I'm trying to figure out a way to extend this to holiday cards without offending everyone I know LOL!!
Around the time I had discussed this concept with my brother (a couple weeks ago), my husband and I lost our beloved Greyhound to a tragic accident. I've had a hard time even talking about it here or anywhere. I've lost dogs before to old age related illnesses, but never to an accident which frankly, I could have prevented in hind sight. Fast forward.....Under our family tree for me and hubby on Christmas day was a beautiful card from my brother and his wife. They enclosed a copy of a letter they had sent along with a donation in the names of our Greyhounds to a local Greyhound Adoption organization. That gift brought me to tears, literally. There is no trinket that I need or want that could have brought me more joy than to have that "gift budget" sent to an organization that will use the money to continue saving and placing Greyhounds.
I hope to expand this charitable donation concept in lieu of gifts through more of my friend / family network next year. Experiencing that idea on the recieving end just confirmed for me that it will work for me. Just wanted to share this notion in case other GS pals have also gotten to a sort of "bah humbug" state with gift exchanges, and might be looking for new ideas.
Happy Holidays!!
DG
Personally, I have reached a point where some of the gift exchanges among all of these groups (family, friends, work groups) have seemed a bit silly to me for years. (Kids are the exception, at least for me). We seem to set a budget range, make a small "wish list" of items within that budget (or worse, not make a list), and then exchange rather meaningless items that most of us neither need or want.
I was talking to one of my close friends and also one of my brothers this year about a new idea. It was a bit too late for this year (with one exception - I'll get to that) but in the future, I've decided that my "wish list" will contain only one thing - please make a donation to your favorite charity instead of buying a gift. I'm trying to figure out a way to extend this to holiday cards without offending everyone I know LOL!!
Around the time I had discussed this concept with my brother (a couple weeks ago), my husband and I lost our beloved Greyhound to a tragic accident. I've had a hard time even talking about it here or anywhere. I've lost dogs before to old age related illnesses, but never to an accident which frankly, I could have prevented in hind sight. Fast forward.....Under our family tree for me and hubby on Christmas day was a beautiful card from my brother and his wife. They enclosed a copy of a letter they had sent along with a donation in the names of our Greyhounds to a local Greyhound Adoption organization. That gift brought me to tears, literally. There is no trinket that I need or want that could have brought me more joy than to have that "gift budget" sent to an organization that will use the money to continue saving and placing Greyhounds.
I hope to expand this charitable donation concept in lieu of gifts through more of my friend / family network next year. Experiencing that idea on the recieving end just confirmed for me that it will work for me. Just wanted to share this notion in case other GS pals have also gotten to a sort of "bah humbug" state with gift exchanges, and might be looking for new ideas.
Happy Holidays!!
DG