Three ways you can make a difference this Christmas
This Christmas season, you and your family can celebrate in ways that are not only festive, but life changing.
Sometimes the holidays can be too busy. We focus on crossing gifts off our list and preparing for the festivities. So you may be looking to incorporate the true meaning of the season into your celebrations.
Whether you’re looking for gifts, decorations or food, there are a myriad of ways a tap of your credit card can make a difference.
Here are just a few options to increase the impact of your gifts and celebrations:
Shop the Christmas Giving guide
This holiday season, you can give gifts that help change the lives of vulnerable people around the world.
Everybody likes to get cozy and warm over the holidays. Why not give the gift of warmth and comfort?
For $20, you can provide thermal blankets, heaters, clothing and shoes to internally displaced Syrian families and their host communities through MCC’s local partner.
If you feel like giving a reindeer-sized gift this holiday season — even by teaming up with your church — you can donate $4,000 to help build a whole well to ensure children like Sewhone Debas and Ayalew Misgan in Ethiopia have access to clean water all year round.
MCC provides the money for the well, while communities contribute labor and team up to do maintenance and repairs.
You can also buy gifts for people closer to home, gifting gently used second-hand items.
This year, consider gifting Christmas baking in a container or baking dish from your local MCC Thrift Shop.
You can also thrift a picture frame and give a beautiful family portrait or piece of original art to a friend or loved one.
Not only are you helping to reduce waste by shopping secondhand, every purchase is a gift to the world.
That’s because all of the profits from MCC Thrift goes right back into MCC’s ministry at home and around the globe.
There are so many creative ways to incorporate thrift into your giving this season. Check out the free resource, Twelve Tips for a Thrift Christmas, for tips on how to incorporate shopping second-hand into gifts, decorations and wrapping.
Fair trade gifts and decorations
Ten Thousand Villages stores provide an easy way to gift beautiful, artisanal, fairly traded products to your family and friends. Every purchase of a beautiful hand-made gift for your family also helps contribute to a fair living for artisans around the world, which enables them to contribute to their own local economies.
You can shop in person or online across the country. Find your Ten Thousand Villages store on their website here.
Whether you’re looking for jewelry to bring some sparkle to your holiday outfit, want some chocolate to stress eat after Christmas shopping or are looking for ornaments, Ten Thousand Villages is the place to go.
