I’ve always found that helping others is the best way to take the focus off my troubles. As challenging as the past few years have been, that’s all the more reason to look for ways to spread holiday cheer to others.
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10 Ways to Spread Holiday Cheer
1. Choose a child from a local Angel Tree and purchase gifts for him or her. The Salvation Army, Prison Fellowship, local churches and other service organizations host these gifting opportunities.
2. Donate food to a local food pantry. Any unexpired, non-perishable foods are welcome but canned meats and other protein sources are always in great demand. Baby formula is also a good choice.
3. Do you have coats your family no longer needs? Your local homeless shelter is a great place to donate these. They also appreciate hats, gloves and (new) socks.
4. Many nursing home residents are lonely under the best of circumstances but especially in this time of COVID. While we can’t do in-person visits these days, a cheery card would be appreciated. This is a great project for kids. Get out the crayons and markers and have them make cards. You can arrange to drop them at the door of nursing homes and assisted living centers.
5. Bake a few batches of cookies and leave them on your neighbors’ front porches.
6. If you’re anything like our family, this year has seen a big increase in packages delivered to your house. We aren’t doing any in-person shopping due to the virus so all of our household needs have arrived via some sort of delivery. A little treat and a note of thanks for all the hard work would be much appreciated by USPS, UPS, Fed-Ex and other delivery folks.
7. Don’t forget the four-legged friends. Pet shelters are always in need of bags of dog and cat food. And if you have old towels, blankets or sheets this is an excellent place to donate them.
8. Does your community have a “Little Free Library“? If so, donate some books you or your children no longer want. Or you can purchase new ones, of course. Consider purchasing online from an independent book store. Like many small businesses, they are struggling these days.
9. If you belong to a church or service organization they no doubt have one or more service projects going on. You don’t even have to belong to make a donation to a specific charity. Call around and ask. You’ll no doubt find many worthy opportunities to make someone’s holiday a little brighter.
10. Health care workers are stressed to the max right now. I recently read of one doctor who had worked 257 days in a row without a single break. One small way you can show your appreciation is with a donation to Slice Out Hunger. One of their projects is to deliver pizza to health care workers and first responders. You make a tax-deductible donation and they deliver pizzas to care workers with the greatest needs. They use local pizzerias which helps these small businesses, as well.
This is just a short list of possibilities. I’d love to hear YOUR ideas, too. Leave a comment below and let’s compile a big list of ways to spread a bit of holiday cheer to others.
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Make Someone Else’s Life Beautiful By Volunteering
How Much is Enough? ~ Contentment in a World of Excess
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