Only two more shopping days….
So for those of you who have had your Christmas shopping
done since before Thanksgiving, who’ve wrapped all your gifts, made all your
food and checked all your lists - I will
try not to hate you. The rest of us know
what it’s like out there. The scarcity
of parking spaces at any retail establishment, the trouble in coming up with
ideas for some of those hard to shop for friends and family and the really bad
Christmas songs they play at the mall (on repeat!)!
Even when we try to keep Christmas simple most of the time there are still gifts to buy, meals to make and gatherings to attend.
So let me offer some help with at least one of those categories– last minute gift ideas (maybe 2 because you can avoid the mall). There are some organizations that allow us to give gifts that are truly and deeply meaningful not only to us and the people we give them to but to others we will never even meet as well.
Through World Relief you can give a bus pass to survivors of trafficking. This allows them freedom of mobility. Freedom to resume or begin a life with some degree of independence. Give this gift and then write a card (or better yet have your kids make a glittery homemade one) to a friend letting them know it was in their honor.
World Vision offers a number of handcrafted gifts you can actually order although at this point they wouldn’t arrive before Christmas. But if you have a late holiday gift exchange or party they would be perfect. Your donation in ordering the gift goes where help is most needed. They also have a number of other “gifts” you can order such as sending farm animals to families in need, fighting child trafficking by providing job training and education for girls and women or giving children access to safe drinking water. A card is provided with each donation, which you can e-mail to the recipient or print out and give to them yourself.
One of my favorite organizations, Living Water, offers gift cards. You can pick a denomination and then print them out – so these can be ready in time for Christmas! What better way to celebrate Jesus, the living water, than by providing water to someone or someones across the world in His name!
The International Justice Mission, an organization dedicated to protecting the poor from violence in the developing world, has a gift catalog. Your donation can be put toward combating slavery, trial fees so a survivor’s case can be heard or to send a child to trauma focused therapy. You can print a card from these gifts as well to give and let someone know you donated in their name.
So there you have it – some last minute gift ideas that, I hope are helpful to those of us with a few names left on our list and a desire to give in a way that is simple and meaningful.
Merry Christmas to all!
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