Find Religion

Friday is the day. You know that day–the one that brings thousands of thrift shoppers out of the woodwork. It’s Black Friday.

Now what does this have to do with religion, other than the fact that, dear readers, your faithful blogger loves to shop (mostly window shopping, but I do splurge a little every now and then on good deals). Well, Black Friday is the tradtional shopping day that begins the Christmas season.

I suppose I could write a long post about how Christmas is too commercialized and how it should focus solely on religion and all that good stuff. In my opinion, however, Christmas IS about gifts, whether we like it or not.

It doesn’t have to be about greedy “I want” attitudes that we see in many around Christmas. More or less, I believe that the gift-giving aspect CAN be very religiously-based, if you choose it to be. If you aren’t a religious person, but still celebrate Christmas, gift-giving can be a way to come together as a family or as a group of friends and simply show your appreciation for one another.

I don’t think that’s ALL of what Christmas is about. I do, however, think that’s a part of it.

In any case, two Christmases ago (Christmases…what an awkward word…), one of my best friends introduced my to a new gift-giving idea. Instead of purchasing lots of toys for the children in her family, she bought them one smaller item and then one item which she gave to Toys for Tots in their honor. I thought it was a really nice idea. You get two rewards out of that–one, the charity aspect and two, the gift-giving aspect.

A little “white liberalist”? Maybe. But that doesn’t mean that it still doesn’t help the charities. That doesn’t mean that no one benefits.

In any case, no matter how you choose to celebrate Christmas, I hope you give this idea some consideration. In honor of black Friday, I’m looking for some nominations for really worthy charities that could help readers get into the Christmas spirit.

I’ve already mentioned Toys for Tots, and another charity that I really like is the Heifer Project. There are tons more out there, and I want to devote a post to sharing some of the best charities for holiday giving, and *hopefully* year-round giving. Nominations?

Black Friday, religion, shopping, Christmas, gifts, celebrate, charity, charities, Toys for Tots, holiday