Tag: Christmas

Change the world for $10

Kevin Hendricks is always finding great ways people can make a real difference. And these two ways don’t take much at all.

“You may not be able to change the world, but you can change the world for one person.”


(embedded video)

50,000 Shoes in 50 Days
Anne Jackson teamed up with Soles4Souls to issue a challenge: Buy 50,000 pairs of shoes in 50 days. $5 will buy you two pairs of shoes! Soles4Souls gets shoes to people who need them, helping to keep them safe and healthy. There’s less than a week left in the challenge and nearly 40,000 pairs of shoes to go.
Buy a pair of shoes now.

Dreaming of a Dry Christmas
invisiblepeople.tv is a great site telling the stories of real homeless people. The man behind it, Mark Horvath, is working with homeless people in Los Angeles and has seen a need for raincoats. Michael Buckingham of Holy Cow Creative wants to send Mark 100 coats. He’s dreaming of a dry Christmas. $4.29 is all it takes to buy a raincoat for a homeless person.
Buy a raincoat now!

Two great ways to change the world for three different people. Just as a note – I gave to both of these groups. How many of you will match me? What other gifts are you giving this holiday season that will make that kind of impact?

I’ll add one other way you can change a person’s Christmas for under $10.

Giving Christmas to Daniel’s Den
Josh got word last week that there are five women living at Daniel’s Den in Waxahachie, the only homeless shelter for women and children in Ellis County. These five women are not going to be getting anything for Christmas, but Josh’s wife and several other women are putting together several gift packages for the women and I do believe you can still help. Drop me an email to find out how you can participate.


(embedded video)

The Santa clause

russian_icon_instaplanet_saint_nicholas

There’s an interesting discussion going on at emergent village about whether Christian parents should teach their children about Santa Claus or not.

As someone who believed in Santa growing up, I’ve always looked upon the idea and nostalgia of Santa with great fun memories. My granddad has always played up the hopes and dreams of Santa’s spirit and continues to even to this day. I’ve often given gifts addressed from Santa rather than my own name. And perhaps it’s that spirit of anonymous/mysterious giving that attracts me most.

I’ve feel like I’ve had a healthy understanding of Santa from my parents and I think that their teaching and upbringing have helped me to have a healthy understanding of “things” as well.

So, what’s the proper response and approach for future (or current) parents — (not that we’re expecting any children anytime soon)?

My kids (ages 3, 3, 1.5) are right on the precipice of imagination: scratchy monsters, dinosaurs, and talking wolves are all becoming characters in our everyday lives. That’s great, but what should I tell them about Santa?

It’s not just that if rearranged, the letters in his name spell Satan, though such a coincidence should give us all pause (just kidding). It’s more the race and class dimensions of Santa’s identity and his social role. Should we really encourage children to project their material aspirations onto an idealized white man? As a full-time working woman, I don’t want my own hard work, income generation, present-purchasing and gift-wrapping to not only be entirely discredited, but all attributed to a benevolent white man. And I also don’t want to encourage my children to associate material wealth, kindness and generosity, and feasting with whiteness and maleness.

Here are my comments ::

We’re not parents yet, but we’ve had discussions about what we might do about Santa Claus when that time comes. I don’t think we’ve come to a firm conclusion yet.

I heard some great stories this weekend on Travel with Rick Steves about how many other cultures celebrate Christmas and the holiday season (http://www.ricksteves.com/radio/streaming/program117a.asx).

What intrigued me most were the several countries who celebrate St. Nicholas Day on the 6th of December – and that’s when their children receive gifts. There are variations of this as well – and in Sicily, they receive gifts on All Saints Day (Nov 1) from dead relatives (creepy).

But it seemed like all cultures left the gifts to other dates and then celebrated Christmas on Dec 24-26 with church services and family. The gifts weren’t part of the picture.

So, what if we too celebrated St. Nicholas Day on Dec 6th and used it as a day to remember the saint (and other saints) who gave all they had. And we gave small gifts to our children on those days in remembrance of the saint. And then on Christmas morning, rather than rushing to open presents – we bundled up as a family and found ways to serve others – giving of our SELVES.

Another idea we’ve had is to take from the Jewish tradition of Hanukkah and give a small gift on each Sunday of Advent and then give a slightly larger one on Christmas morning.

What are some other creative ideas? What are you doing? What have you considered doing? Is it something to even be concerned with?

something beautiful advent christmas extravaganza

You’ve mailed all your Christmas cards, you’re wrapping the last of the gifts and you’re tired of all the Christmas re-runs on TV?

Well have no fear, the something beautiful podcast advent christmas extravaganza is here!

The podcast went live mid-day today (half a day early) and already it’s had 44 downloads! It may be a record setter. We also posted a special “bonus” episode for material that didn’t quite fit with the rest of the extravaganza (23 downloads of that episode already – totaling 67 downloads in one day – I KNOW that’s a record).

Anyways, head on over to the something beautiful podcast and download the Christmas joy. And have yourself a Merry little Advent and Christmas.

More Virgin Mary, less Virgin Islands

I’ll file this under the “Guilty as Charged” file.

The Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest, says he objects to Christmas cards featuring family photos.

Look, I love family photos during the holidays. Plus, I actually read those annual holiday letters, all of which start with “What a busy year it’s been!” Seeing photos of my friends and their families and even enjoying a few sunny beach scenes when it’s cold and dark outside is a highlight of December.

But I enjoy the photos more when they’re inside the card, not the card itself. Because more and more, even devout Christians have been replacing Jesus, Mary and Joseph with themselves.

Can I plead my case that we saved a lot more money by making our own cards and having them printed as pictures, rather than buying a Christmas card and including a family photo?

“Doesn’t it strike you as weird to set aside the Holy Family in favor of your family? Does a photo of Cabo San Lucas trump the story told by the original San Lucas? Is Christmas really about you?”

Ouch! It makes me really rethink how I’m celebrating Christmas this year — as I stuff a few more Christmas photos into envelopes.

Listen to the full commentary.

The MasterCard commercial you’ll never see

Amount spent each year in Europe and the United States on pet food: $17 billion

Cost per year to achieve basic health and nutrition for the entire world: $13 billion

Amount spent on perfumes each year: $12 billion

Clean water for all the world: $9 billion

Amount spent on cosmetics in the US: $8 billion

Basic education for the world’s children: $6 billion

Total amount the US spends on Christmas each year: $450 billion (or 16 years worth of food, water, and education for the world)

Initial cost of the US Government bailout of failing financial institutions: $700 billion (or 25 years worth of food, water, and education for the world)

Coming to grips with the alarming disconnects of our consumerist society: Priceless

HT:The Seminal

What kids really want this Christmas

christmas village
christmas village

The Simple Dollar shares several pointers on how to make Christmas much more meaningful this year.

First off they note, that the really meaningful Christmas gifts don’t come from MegaMart.

My wife and I take pleasure in creating homemade Christmas gifts, as do many of our friends. But even these are secondary to the time we spend “playing Santa”, driving around making holiday deliveries to the people we know. As we chat on porches or sit in living rooms, sipping hot cocoa and fawning over children, it’s the bonds of friendship that are important — not the gifts.

The post then shares several pointers from the book, Unplugging the Christmas Machine.

Robinson and Staeheli (the book’s authors) argue that children don’t really want clothes and toys and games. The four things they actually want are:

  • A relaxed and loving time with the family. Children need relaxed attention. During the holidays, normal family routines are temporarily set aside for parties, shopping, and special events. It’s important to slow down and spend quality time with your kids.
  • Realistic expectations about gifts. Kids enjoy looking forward to gifts and then having their expectations met. The key is to manage their expectations. By educating them about what “Santa” can afford, and is willing to give, it’s possible to prevent disappointment on Christmas morning.
  • An evenly-paced holiday season. The modern Christmas season starts months before December 25th, when the first store displays go up. Things end with a bang on Christmas day. The authors suggest beginning the season late in the year instead. Get out the Christmas music on December 15th. Pick out a tree on the following weekend. Schedule some low-key family events during Christmas week. Stretch the season to New Years Day.
  • Reliable family traditions. When I talk to my friends about what Christmas was like when we were Children, it’s not the gifts that we remember. We recall the things we did as a family. I remember sleeping next to the tree every Christmas eve, but never being able to catch Santa in the act. I remember seeing the cousins. I remember decorating the trailer house. Your kids will remember the traditions, not the gifts.

That last point is so important: it’s the traditions that make this season special, not the gifts.

I shared with our small group Saturday night that the idea of giving and receiving “material gifts” has become a lot more trivial to me in recent years. Maybe I’m ungrateful and expect everyone else to feel the same way — I dunno. I just feel like a gift card or a last minute gift says nothing about how you might really feel about that person.

Spending an hour over coffee at Starbucks, or a bowl of popcorn seems to say so much more.

What about you? What are you thinking, doing differently this year?