Charity

I totally agree! A big part of our holiday tradition is doing some sort of charity work. The past three years we've volunteered to pack the Salvation Army Christmas hampers as well as other things.
it really gives you a whole new outlook on the season...these families have so little, but they still manage to make Christmas special.

I've donated to the United Way and the Salvation Army so far this holiday season.

And I continue to donate my spare computing power to the WCG. Check it out through the link in my sig.

Also..., the Strathroy Ontario Women's Rural Resource Centre and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

The key is to find something you enjoy doing. I know, "it's not about you, it's about the people you're helping," but if you can have a good time while helping others, you'll feel much better and are more likely to keep doing it.

I tend to donate time and effort, rather than money, partly for the reasons mentioned above, and for the fact that I'm still a student. I put about sixty hours in building two homes with habitat for humanity this summer because I love to build things, and it was a great experience working with so many different people (it's great, on a project like that, to see some people who have no hard skills still come out and manage to contribute). I was also part of the Food Bank fundraiser 'Canstruction', in which we built sculptures using donated cans of food (photo in the 'Member Creations' gallery).

Anyway, the point of mentioning these is that there are many ways to help other people out, and it's just a matter of finding something that you're good at and enjoy doing; charity doesn't have to be monetary donations (though those are just as important). I'll definately be involving myself again in the future, because it was fun, and for great causes... it's win/win.

My parents, who are retired, help sort and pack donations at the Sally Ann every year at Christmas.