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How do?

Whilst I’m lucky enough to come from a reasonably well heeled family (I wanted stuff, but I didn’t want for stuff), this is something curiously close to my heart.

In short, Christmas is coming up fast. And as you kick into gear to splurge on your family, I ask you to simply spare a thought for kids from less advantaged backgrounds.

See, there’s some poor little sods out there who probably won’t get any presents at all. And that’s pretty rubbish. I don’t give a parabolic fornication what their parents may or may not be, or the mistakes they made, it ain’t ever the fault of the kids. Some get lucky like you or I, others not so much. Nobody can help the family they’re born into.

But you and I can make a difference. Wherever you are in the world, I’m willing to bet there’ll be a local charity making toy appeals at this time of year. So as my Christmas wish, I beg all of you to look into these things.

It doesn’t cost a lot of money. Nobody is asking you to cough up for a family’s entire Christmas. Absolutely not. And if they are, well, at least consider it? But seriously. We’re not talking about buying kids PS4’s and that. Just toys is all. Any and all toys. If you’re really lucky, the real arse ache is taken out of your choice by the power of Amazon Wish Lists. With those, all you need do is click a link, find a present or presents to suit your pocket, then two or three clicks later you’ve just improved some kid’s life.

Seriously. It’s often that easy.

Even if you can’t find a local organised thing, you can do some simple legwork yourself. In the UK, get in touch with your local food bank. See what sort of stuff they need or want. And joking apart, to some really unfortunate kids a full belly is a present.

As for next year? If this is the sort of thing that appeals to you, why not consider doing a Just Giving campaign? I ran one last year, and raised £400. £200 cash donation to Great Ormond Street Hospital (I may be a 6’2” horror now, but I wasn’t a well baby), and still managed to buy a bunch of Make Your Own Teddy kits and Footballs for the Tower Hamlets foodbank - 40 Toys in total, thanks to finding a wholesaler.

It really is that straight forward to make a tangible difference to a kid’s life.

I’m Mad Doc Grotsnik, and I endorse this message.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, and I’m not above emotional blackmail.

When I was 5, my mother, my sister, and I lived in a womens shelter for a good 6 months. When she got a job that paid enough for us to get an apartment, we barely had money to eat and heat the place, much less buy for Christmas. I was a recipient of Toys for Tots, which for those of you that don't live in the US, is where people donate new toys to the program, which is run by the United States Marine Corps, who then distribute the toys to children who are disadvantaged. I donate every year, usually around $100 of toys if I can afford it.

Otherwise, all the gifts in my house that come from Santa, are usually just clothes or small toys. I try to get other people to the same frame of mind, that way when they go back to school, one kid doesn't get a new Xbox One X from Santa, and the other kid just got a pair of gloves because his parents are trying to keep the house afloat.

I should try and get my family to do this. I have a baby son and it will be his first Christmas. Right now we have enough money that we are able to pay our bills and he gets what he needs. We don’t have money to splash around, but we never worry come the end of the month. What I am trying really hard to get across to family is that he does not need gifts. He is 11 months old and he has an IKEA Scub box of toys and a dozen books. He does not need any more at his age. It’s just crap that will fill our house, played with once then get thrown. I think I will suggest that they can buy him one small thing and give the rest to GOSH or the local Santa ride.

I don't normally do too much other than donating a few bucks to the Salvation Army guys outside of the grocery store and kick in some cash to Extra Life, but that's not really christmas related. Maybe I'll see what there is in the area.

 Steve steveson wrote:
snip

Off topic, but around that age you might want to pick up a few extra toys, and keep them in reserve. Around a year to 13 months, they will grow bored of the same toys day in and day out, but their long term memory will still be poor enough that you can swap out with "new toys" every couple of weeks, and they (in thoery) be more content. We did this with out daughter (shes 20 months), and it saved my wife a massive hassle with baby boredom.

Particularly for the very young, look for rugged toys. Stuff made from wood, toys that can survive bit of a kid based battering.

Something that can be washed properly and passed on.

Seriously folks. It doesn’t take much. If you like to eat put, stay in just one night, and pass the on the money you would’ve spent to a charity. About to spend a couple of hundred (or more, I’m not judging) on your kid? Why not consider taking 10% of that figure and spend it on charity toys? It’s not like most kids will even care. And if they do, it’s a good lesson. And if they still don’t care! OK, at that point you may well be a bad parent.

When I was in high school I helped organize the toys for tots for my school. I then went to the marine base and helped organize the toys. One thing that they told me that stuck was they always have enough for young kids, but never older kids/preeteens.
They said footballs,make up kits and other such thing are great what they want.
Ever since, I get stuff for older kids.

I make it a point to donate toys to Toys For Tots every year. And I also drop a few dollars into the iconic red kettles of the Salvation Army during the holiday season.

Every single year I make certain to donate where I can. I don’t make a ton of money, and I’ve got my own little guy to look after, but having my own has made me realize even more how important it is to help where you can. When I worked for Toys R Us, I handled the collections for our Toys For Tots donations. This year I’m committing time to volunteer through the church to be one of those guys dressed up like Santa, ringing a bell and collecting donations for the Salvation Army. I’d like to encourage everyone to do what the can, as well. Anything at all that can help a child in need is truly doing God’s work, whether you believe or not.

 Steve steveson wrote:
He is 11 months old and he has an IKEA Scub box of toys and a dozen books. He does not need any more at his age. It’s just crap that will fill our house, played with once then get thrown. I think I will suggest that they can buy him one small thing and give the rest to GOSH or the local Santa ride.

Yeah at that age they'll get so much stuff it's not funny. We're still rotating Christmas toys out and he's 2. We really should get our finger out and donate a lot of it.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
When I was in high school I helped organize the toys for tots for my school. I then went to the marine base and helped organize the toys. One thing that they told me that stuck was they always have enough for young kids, but never older kids/preeteens.
They said footballs,make up kits and other such thing are great what they want.
Ever since, I get stuff for older kids.

I'd echo that. We've got a few foodbanks with Christmas gift campaigns locally, and they've got kids from 1 up to about 12 on the list. You can easily fob off a 1 year old with anything (mine gets more enjoyment out of empty plastic bottles than most of his toys), but it must be horrible feeling like the only one in a school class that didn't get anything from Santa, since someone will ask, and some kids will be gloating about their new stuff.

Time is just as good as a present!

Next year I reckon I'll do another football and teddy run. All about stuff they'll treasure and remember. Teddies are hugged every night, and footballs can be played with in all weather.

Dunno if it's unique to my town, but the Mayor does a giving tree. There's tags hanging off it. You pick one, and it's got a kid's wishes on it. Some are seriously heartbreaking, like the girl that only asked for thick tights for school. My mate took that one, and also got her some other warm clothes and a couple of toys. Cost to him was about £40 all in, but the difference?

My office do a lot of fundraising for this sort of thing, we take part in Wave 105's Mission Christmas each year which is a charity for children living in poverty in the local area (mainly Portsmouth area if I remember rightly).

https://planetradio.co.uk/wave-105/charity/events/wave-mission-christmas/

I think last year we raised something like £19,000...

Blimey! That's no drop in the ocean!

Yeah, proud of that. We did well.

(Edit - found a link! http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/charity/14645847.Company_raises___19_000_for_children_s_charity_appeal_in_just_one_week/ )

Personally, we (family) also do the Christmas box thing where we gift-wrap a shoe-box full of small toys, stationery, toiletries etc to go off to kids in places like Syria. The pictures and videos of the kids opening these boxes are lovely, feels great to have brought even a few moments of joy to what must be an otherwise pretty awful existence.

I gave at the office.

Honestly, the United way comes here each year. We raised around $20k at my office. Downtown office was quite a bit more.

We also do a food drive at all of our plants and offices in October. This year, we donated 149,712 lbs of food and other items.

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