5 Unique Ways to Focus on Giving Back This Holiday Season

The best thing for your family to do is to turn the focus on those in need

Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash

At the end of another challenging year, we are already deep into a holiday season that, once again, feels quite different. We’d all like to create a little holiday magic for our children while we continue to hope for better days in the future. I continue to be convinced that the best way to minimize stress, avoid the greediness that kids often experience at this time of year, and stay in touch with what really matters, is to turn our focus on those in need.

Sharing our resources, keeping our hearts open to the needs of others, and extending kindness (which is always free) is the best way to feel joy and peace during the holidays. And the truth is, kids won’t remember the “must-have” toy that will likely end up in a pile after all of the gifts have been unwrapped on the first night of Hanukkah, the last night of Kwanzaa, or Christmas morning, but they will cherish the time spent together, making memories through family service traditions.

We’ve all seen enough of these types of posts (and I’ve written plenty) that encourage parents to engage in some of the many service and donation opportunities that pop up in advance of the holidays. Of course, you should pay attention and participate in these as much as your budget and schedule allow. Look for the Toys for Tots collection box in front of your local toy store, ask your children to pick out a few toys to purchase, and let them experience the joy of adding them to the box.

Take a tag from the “adopt-a-family” tree at your office, church, or community center and work with your children to fulfill the Christmas wishes of a family in need. When you are baking cookies, make an extra batch and take a plate to an isolated or ill neighbor, or to your local firehouse or hospital emergency department for the front-line heroes who are working on the holiday. Send care packages to our active-duty military serving far from home and missing their families at this time of year.

The list is endless, and again, you need only to keep your eyes open as you rush through your busy days to see the possibilities for kindness and generosity that abound in your community and the wider world.

Beyond that, I’ve included a few out-of-the-box opportunities that you might consider during this uniquely different holiday season:

1. Participate in the 12 Days of Cardmas with Love For Our Elders, a national nonprofit with the mission of fighting loneliness with love, one letter at a time. Since 2013, Love For Our Elders has coordinated volunteers to write and send over 250,000 letters to isolated seniors.
2. Purchase a Giving Manger which helps families shift the focus of Christmas back to giving. Each box set includes a picture book, a wooden manger, a bundle of straw, and a baby Jesus to be placed in the manger on Christmas morning. During the days leading up to Christmas, a piece of straw is placed in the manger for each kind deed or act of service your family performs. On Christmas Day, your children can place the baby Jesus on a manger filled with service and love.
3. Paint Stars of Hope and send them to a community that is hurting during this season. Stars of Hope is a nonprofit that emerged after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. You can purchase a “Box of Hope” which includes simple wooden stars, paints, brushes, and a reusable box in which you can ship your decorated stars to a community in need. Instead of encouraging arts and crafts projects that may or may not end up in the trash, work with your kids to paint Stars of Hope with hopeful, loving, and encouraging messages. In addition to spreading kindness to others, this project will be calming and therapeutic for you and your children, as well.
4. Give your children an Alltruists subscription (or an individual box). Alltruists is a new company that sells kid-friendly volunteer projects created in partnership with nonprofits. You can choose a single box or a multi-month subscription, and each box is themed around a different topic, guiding your child to engage with a real-world issue in a positive way.
5. Speaking of purposeful gift-giving, instead of spending money on the latest gadget, doll, or cartoon series merchandise, why not purchase a fun gift for your child that also gives back to charity? Cuddle and Kind creates adorable hand-knit, fair-trade dolls and for every doll sold, the company gives 10 meals to a child in need. If you have an animal lover, you can “adopt” a species through the WWF to help conserve wildlife and give the gift of a plush animal like an orangutan, fox, kangaroo, or koala. And if you are looking for the classic stocking stuffer (socks!) consider buying some colorful pairs from Bombas. For every item purchased, Bombas donates an item of clothing to a person experiencing homelessness.

Whatever you do, don’t let the to-do lists, cookie-swaps, gift wrapping, and tree decorating wear you down and distract you from the many meaningful gifts that this season offers: simple gratitude, family traditions and the satisfaction of knowing that one small act of kindness shared by your family can make a real difference in the lives of others.

Natalie Silverstein, MPH, is an author, speaker, consultant, and passionate advocate for family and youth service. Her first book, Simple Acts: The Busy Family’s Guide to Giving Back, was published in 2019. Her second book, Simple Acts: The Busy Teen’s Guide to Making a Difference will be published in early 2022. Natalie is the New York coordinator of Doing Good Together, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit. In this role, she curates a free monthly e-mail listing of family-friendly service opportunities distributed to thousands of subscribers. Her personal and parenting essays have appeared on a variety of blogs including Grown and Flown, Red Tricycle, Motherwell, and Mommypoppins. She is a frequent public speaker and podcast guest. Natalie holds a master’s degree in public health from Yale. She lives in New York City with her husband and three children.