My mom is known for Christmas shopping year round. I wish I had her organization skills. Even as I type this, she has gifts wrapped beautifully and tucked away in anticipation of Christmas. I feel good about things if I get going in September, but realistically I really start looking in October.
One idea I’ve embraced as part of our attempt at economizing and adding meaning to Christmas this year - is a donation in someone’s honor. I wanted to support an organization that would be universally appreciated, relevant to today’s issues and one that offered some nice material to go along with the donation.
I decided on adopting animals from the World Wildlife Federation. The WWF is the largest multinational conservation organization in the world, and has been around long before the environment was a buzzword – for 45 years. As part of the adoption options, you have your choice of 90 animals to choose from – and a range of adoption kits and prices.
I chose to adopt Polar Bears for my donation/gift. For family members with children, I also ordered (separately) the Polar Bear Webkinz to go with the adoption packages. The WWF offers stuffed animals with their $50 package, but of course with Webkinz being all the range, I decided to go that route. The adoption kids all come with an adoption certificate and a photo – the higher level packages come with additional goodies.
Another idea would be to adopt an animal and get a great children’s book that covers that animal as well. There are sorts of fun ways to make this more than just another gift that gets donated the following year to make room for more. And there are tons of worthwhile missions out there who also offer packages for gifts given in honor of an individual or family.
I’m also looking for other ways you’re making the holidays unique this year. Do you have a family tradition? Are you planning on downsizing creatively? If so, leave a comment with your ideas!
by Amy Sandoval
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