It’s that time of year again. The time when we are all so busy figuring out what our holiday plans are going to be. Who is hosting what dinner? What am I going to wear to which party? Have the kids started their wish list? It’s also time to start thinking how we’re going to give back. How we’re going to make a difference for a family that isn’t as fortunate as we are.
We all complain that we don’t have enough; I’ve been guilty of it just like most of you. My house isn’t big enough, my car is too old, I want a new wardrobe. How sad and pathetic that all seems when there are families who have no job, are being foreclosed on and won’t find many presents for their kids underneath the tree… if they even have a tree.
Last year we did a couple of things as a family that really resonated with me and I hope to follow them up with similar plans this year and start a family tradition of giving back. Last year, the kids and I put together a Halloween basket for a local Retirement Community. Not only did we enjoy doing it, the looks on the faces of the residents when we brought it to them was priceless. For elderly people who rarely get a chance to celebrate these fun holidays anymore, it was like bringing a little of their youth back.
For Thanksgiving, I chose to participate with Scary Mommy in her call to help her readers who weren’t able to provide a proper Thanksgiving dinner for their kids. A gesture as simple as sending a family a gift card to a market so they could buy a turkey for the holiday was something I could do easily. I wouldn’t miss an extra $25… but it would mean the world to someone who had no money at all.
During Christmas, I was fed up with my children asking and asking and asking for things that they totally didn’t need. There are WAY too many kids who go without any gifts at all and the though made me sick. I took my children and we went shopping… not for them, but for several kids who were in foster care and wouldn’t be getting gifts from their families. I was determined my kids would understand that by giving to someone in need, they get back so much more.
Tell me… how do you give back during the holidays… or during any time of the year?
Join me and TheMotherhood for a Twitter Party and learn more about the #GivingTuesday charitable initiative!
Thursday, November 1, 2012 at 12:00 noon ET
RSVP Here http://twtvite.com/GivingTuesday
