Paying Kindness Forward at Christmas | A Charity Gift Guide

Struggling to find a Christmas present for someone that has everything? How about paying kindness forward to a charity. I’ve been sharing a charity gift guide annually since 2014 (which have also helped me buy meaningful presents for those friends and family who are notoriously hard to buy for as well…) as well as supporting great small businesses who are making a difference in the world.

Blogger gift guides are pretty well established now, but as ever I couldn’t just do a normal one – it needed a slightly Adventures of a London Kiwi twist (I even spotted a couple of little sheep fellows – hey, you can take the blogger out of New Zealand…)

Forget sickly smelling bath sets where half the products are thrown away, and ugly tie that is only trotted out on special occasions; how about buying a chicken for a suffering family and share the feel-good donation afterglow? Most of these quirky gifts are sent to the recipient in a glossy card or can be printed out and added to a batch of homebaked biscuits.

A few quick ideas could be;

DONATE A FEW TINS OR A HAMPER TO A NEARBY FOODBANK – VARIOUS

Whatever you can afford to give – non-perishables are usually best as the food banks can hold onto them as long as needed without having to refrigerate.

DONATE A CHRISTMAS PRESENT FOR A WOMAN OR CHILD ESCAPING DOMESTIC ABUSE

When women and children flee domestic abuse, they often have to leave with nothing but the clothes they’re wearing. Your gift could help someone as they start to build a new life free from fear.

From recycling to shopping online, there are lots more ways to help us grant life-changing wishes to children with critical illnesses.

The money spent on Oxfam Unwrapped gifts will help to support the full range of Oxfam’s work around the world, from emergency responses to advocacy projects. Every year, Oxfam’s programme teams work out what the communities they work in need the most and it’s these must-have items that get featured in their gift catalogue.

ENSURE A FUTURE VIA THE GIFT OF EDUCATION – SAVE THE CHILDREN

Whether you buy a food basket or a football, each Wishlist gift helps change the lives of children across the world. Goats (or even better two), water filters, art sets, winter clothes or even tree saplings – they all make a difference.

ADOPT AN ENDANGERED ANIMAL – WWF

Take Pandas for example – they’re insanely cute, gentle giants (unless you happen to be a bamboo plant) and incredibly under threat. Not only do all WWF profits go to fund the care and protection of your chosen wild animal, but your giftee also gets their own ‘adoption’ papers AND a cuddly plush toy version too. (You can tell why this has to be on my charity gift guide every year, can’t you?)

DONATE SOMETHING VIA YOUR NEAREST HYGIENE BANK

Like foodbanks but with hygiene essentials instead.

DONATE TOWARDS DEPRIVED CHILDRENS FUTURES – UNICEF 

For more than 65 years, Unicef has been a leader in providing life-saving help for children caught in emergencies around the world. Their emergency relief effort complements our development work that helps children to survive and stay healthy, go to school, to have a voice on matters that affect them, and protect them from abuse and exploitation. All the more reason to include them in my charity gift guide.

BUY A FAMILY A SCHOOL DESK, A SHEEP FELLOW OR ANTIBIOTICS FOR A SICK CHILD

Each Christian Aid gift bought will help Christian Aid transform the lives of people in poor communities around the world – helping families in countries such as Ethiopia, Haiti, Bangladesh and many more places in need of support.

And anything on this Christmas charity gift guide doesn’t appeal, you could always donate in other ways; via a blood bank, spend an afternoon with lonely elderly neighbours or buy someone needy a coffee. Have you any extra ideas as well? Is there a charity or cause close to your heart?

** None of these charities know I’m touting them about!