One of my favorite parts of the Christmas season is the traditional gift giving. Sure, it’s great to give and receive gifts from family and friends, but what I really love is our sponsor a family program we participate in at work. Families in need self-identify and we put together care packages with food and gifts based on the size of the family and the ages of any children in the family.

It’s always fun to see what people bring in to fill the baskets with. There’s a standard list of food that is always included, but it’s the little extras each person brings in to add to the baskets that make me smile. You can learn a lot about the people you work with by what they bring to share with others. Who’s a vegetarian, who’s got an addiction to which type of crackers or cookies, who’s a chocoholic, who never grew out of children’s luncheon snacks and who prefers desert over the main meal…

To raise funds for Christmas presents for the children in the family we hold coin collecting contests (bragging rights go to the department that raises the most money), bake sales, book exchanges (donations welcome), and raffle off gift baskets containing items donated by the salaried staff. Extra funds are used to buy presents and items to donate to local children’s charities. Extra food items are sent to the local food bank.

I’ve been participating in the program for 8 years (have I really been working at the same place for that long?) and it’s one of the reasons I haven’t yet been motivated to move to a different company. You can measure a company and its people by the type of work it does in the community and the type of things that it gives back to its employees. The Christmas program supporting internal employees is one of the best examples of sharing with others that I’ve ever experienced.

Another favorite Christmas tradition we have in our small family is charitable donations in place of Christmas presents. The hubby and I started doing this a few years ago when my dad complained that he didn’t need anything to add to the clutter at home. Rather than not sending a gift, we decided to make a donation to charity on behalf of our friends and family members. It was a hit with dad, since he got a tax-receipt for the donation (Scots are notoriously frugal – I wonder why it never rubbed off on me). We pick a charity that has meaning for the recipient – diabetes research, cancer research, etc. It seemed to go over well, so we’ve continued it for the past few years. Mom has pointed out that there is a downside to donations – there’s nothing to unwrap from open under the tree.

This year, I think this year we’ll find something small to send along with the donation…we’ll see what the budget allows.

Technorati Tags: Christmas, gift giving, sharing, donations, charity

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