It’s Easy to Put Gifts that Give Back on your Holiday Wish List

Kindness is finally in style! As the holidays approach, I’m realizing that along with the gift guides and toy commercials, are an equal number of opportunities to give back with gifts that help those in need! Better still is that families are beginning to make giving back a part of their own holiday traditions. The amazing part of this is that these thoughtful gifts can change lives for the better! What could be more appropriate for the season?

We’ve been giving creative gifts that give back for many years through our local children’s hospital, fundraising and donating in Zack’s name, supporting local charities that matter to us and even donating some of our vacation time to volunteer at a school in Negril, Jamaica. The experience at that school is one that will forever stay with us and with our boys. Not only did we get to hand out an extra suitcase FULL of supplies for the struggling school, toys for the kids, necessities for the teachers and even some yummy candy, we got to spend time with the students in their classrooms. Like so many other struggling communities around the world, education is a treasured privilege and these kids LOVED school, took such pride in their work (even using pencils that were worn down to the nub) and were inspired by teachers who were making the most with what little they had. How could we not want to do more?

Because of this amazing experience and the choices from World Vision, we will be skipping the coffee and movie gift cards for our amazing teachers this year. We will be looking beyond our beloved island, for ways to help the over 100 countries that benefit from the gifts in the World Vision Catalogue. This holiday, with our $50 donation to Supply a Classroom, we can provide access to education for children living in poverty. Best of all, this donation is multiplied SEVEN times because of generous partner donations! I can’t wait to see the looks on the teacher’s faces when they see that their gift is helping teachers around the world!

That wasn’t enough. I could have spent several hours deciding how to do even more through World Vision’s initiatives like providing sustainable food and water sources. When the $30 gift of Sports Equipment caught my eye, I knew that THIS was what I would get our boys for their annual stocking stuffer donation. Our boys know what it’s like to enjoy hockey, basketball and soccer, and can truly relate to the feeling of not being able to play because of a lack of equipment or even not having access to a safe place to play. Imagine the looks on the kids’ faces when they are able to have the same fun that our own kids can have!

Giving back just feels good and inspires our kids to follow our lead. While I haven’t even looked at the boys’ lists for toys and video games for Christmas yet, I already feel thrilled with the online shopping I’ve done for the holidays. What gifts that give back are on your shoppping list?