Alternative Christmas Gift

Is this term new to you? It was new to me just a couple years ago.

No, its not a way to try to take Christ out of Christmas. In fact, I think it accomplishes something close to the opposite: reclaiming a selflessness to the idea of giving gifts to celebrate the birth of Christ...

Perhaps in reaction to the materialism of our age as it crescendos in December each year, some ministries have given people like you and me the chance to buy a gift for our loved ones that is actually not for them, but a (tax-deductible) contribution to a not-for-profit which is made in honor of that loved one.

Please, dear Reader, feel free to comment with your favorite such opportunities. As your comments and my thoughts develop, I'll add more this list:

• Wycliffe USA Gift Catalog (submitted by Me, shamelessly, and with full disclosure that this is my employer)
• Samaritan's Purse Gift Catalog (suggested by "Chris" [last name unknown])
• World Vision Gift Catalog (suggested by anonymous) Regarded by many as "the king of Web-based fundraising" among Christian organizations. Clicking this link in the next month or so will play the video automatically but I doubt after 12/31 they will have it up, so if you are visiting this page after that, sorry.
• more... ?