Christmas presents...

[Kit-Ginevra]

Not sure where to put this,but I shall tuck it here.We'll be having a quiet Christmas,so I've ended up with a bit of money and not many people to buy for.If any of you lovely people have children/cats/dogs/tortoises that would like a special present,then drop me a line with what they're into and I'll see what I can do!

[cindybubbles]

Well, donations to charity would be great.

[mathnerd]

For my birthday/Christmas I generally ask for the same thing:

Donate products for black women's hair to your local battered women's shelter. Woman tend to enter these shelters with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. They must rely on the shelter for even the most basic hygiene supplies. While plenty of soaps, shampoos and lotions are donated, they tend to be the cheap stuff that only sort of works for caucasian type hair. African/Black type hair is very, very different and requires all kinds of products that less kinky hair simply doesn't need. As a result, many black women in shelters wind up seeing their hair dry up and sometimes it even starts breaking off and/or falling out in chunks. It can really do a number to their sense of self worth, which is so sad, since it could be so easily fixed simply by having the proper products.

Anyway, if you'd like to spend some of your excess budget on something like that, I promise you that you'll make those women very, very happy.

[Tama]

Also, donations of pet food to your local shelter. Or adopt one if you can.

[Quillsilver]

Can I just take a second to point out how AWESOME the reaction here is? Kit offers to send gifties to kids and fur-kids, and everyone immediately suggests donating to charities, women's shelters, and animal rescues instead. Looks to me like the true spirit of the season!

[cindybubbles]

Thanks.

Back when cellphones were new and everyone still had corded phones, I put donated some stuff to a poor family. One of those things was my old corded phone, which I gave to the teenager, so she could talk to her heart's content and her parents could complain about her chatting to her best friends on the phone, like all her other friends' parents do!

[Gilhelmi]

A small donation to the Salvation Army would be a great Christmas present.

[Seshat]

My charity hobbyhorses:

* Residential assistance for adult disabled people who need nursing care BUT are mentally competent.
Too often, they're put in with geriatric patients and thus get treated by doctors and nursing staff who are accustomed to palliative care rather than 'this person expects to go on living for another 40 years or more' care. Being in among geriatric patients is also depressing if you're a lively 20 or 30 year old. (Even 40+ but not yet frail aged!)
And too often, the only alternative is to be among disabled people who are not mentally competent; and the carers there treat you like someone who isn't mentally competent. (No, I don't need you to tell me when bedtime is, dammit!)

* Providing free or sliding-scale mental health care. Especially the counselling-level care (talking therapies); because so often providing counsellors at key points in someone's life can prevent something minor from becoming something major.

* Pain research. But then, given that I suffer from a pain disease, it kind of makes sense that it's one of my hobbyhorses.

[strawbabies]

That is one of the sweetest things I've heard in a long time. My furry kids have everything they need, but I'm sure the dogs at your local shelter would love some dog beds and blankets so they don't have to sleep on concrete floors.

[mjr]

I also agree with taking the additional funds you have and donating them. I won't specify where, I'll leave that up to you and what's in your heart.

[KuariKaydrith]

I've adopted a co-worker and his family for Christmas They've been having a bit of a rough go, something I found out by accident. He made a comment that made me sit up and take notice, and that is when I decided I was going to play Santa - my co-worker is aware that I'm doing this too although he tried to downplay the situation (one more reason I feel he and his young family are deserving of a helping hand). My son and I don't really do much for Christmas as it's only us here, so when I mentioned to my son about helping my co-worker and family out this year he was on board with it.

I think we've found our new holiday tradition.