Thoughts about gifts...

Giving gifts is a wonderful thing. And there is nothing better than finding the perfect gift that you know the recipient will love. Receiving is also special. I love using items given to me because they have more meaning to me. But both Dav and I don't like the pressure to give because of a holiday. Like Dav, I don't want to buy something just because I feel obligated to. I still tend to get into gift traditions though as I don't want to disappoint people, yet I have conflicted feelings. In addition, as the environment and my actions that affect it become more important, I cringe at all the wrapping paper, and stuff. Nice, fun stuff, but still stuff that we probably wouldn't have if there wasn't the gift-giving tradition around the holidays (that is commercially-driven). I don't want to seem ungrateful as I totally appreciate people thinking of us. But again, I feel conflicted. This year I decided to try something new. For a few for whom I did want to give gifts, like my niece and nephew, I bought them donations. So the money I would have used to buy something that may or may not have pleased them (I've goofed up before on buying items that weren't hip and in) went to a cause I believe in. I could feel good about giving such a gift. I decided on the World Wildlife Fund. It was perfect because with the donations, I got nice cards that I could send to my recipients, and with that card, they could go to the website and decide which animal to support, AND they could get a cute stuffed animal along with an informational card about the animal. For children, it's nice they still get a little something. I also bought a few of donations from Oceana, and sent penguin cookie cutters that came with the donations. I think I will give such donations increasingly. If I find gift things that are useful and perfect, great. If not, I will give a donation.

Comments

[E Jetmar]

I love giving charity donations as gifts, and I love the World Wildlife Fund!

Another organization I just read about is http://www.charitychecks.us/,
where you can buy donations to give to friends and your friends can pick any of the 800,000 charities registered in the US and give the charity check you bought them to the favorite charity of their choice such as a local children's hospital or soup kitchen.

[Ian Kennedy]

Thanks again. Tyler & Julia both appreciated the gift and the way they went about deciding which species to sponsor was quite indicative.

Julia (5) looked quickly through the pamphlet and honed in on the dolphin because the stuffed animal was the cutest. Tyler (8) was much more considered and thought carefully about each one and finally honed it down to either the Manateee, Snow Leopard, or Humpback Whale and then we set off and researched each of them to try and determine which of them were the most endangered. He finally determined that the Snow Leopard was the best place to put his money.

I have to say that the WWF website was a bit flaky and somehow three separate confirmation emails came through. Hopefully he doesn't end up getting three stuffed snow leopards in the mail which means your donation was pretty much spent up on fluffy facsimiles and postage!