How to give of yourself and not just give “stuff”
For those of you willing to take the Christmas Challenge and resist buying lots of stuff (that we forget about after Christmas anyway), we have some alternative gift giving ideas. We call these relational gifts. Relational giving is the gift of self. It can be giving something we make or it could be giving of ourselves in special ways. Our staff put together a list of ideas to help you get your creative juices flowing. Let this Christmas reflect the giving of God he didn’t send a store bought gift he sent himself in Jesus. That’s the epitome of relational giving.
On some of the gifts below where you offer a service or will provide an event, you can just create your own gift card that the person can redeem.
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Parents of middle school or high school students; you might want to consider giving your son or daughter the gift of winter camp! See our youth staff – Mike, Brian or Stephani to arrange a gift that can change a life.
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As a family adopt a family (like Season of Giving) and make the shopping trip an event
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A date night with your spouse or monthly date nights as a family
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Purchase a small inexpensive item that you can attach a greater meaning to for example: buy a bag of popcorn and an offer to spend a evening watching a movie together. They choose the movie.
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Create a list of things you will do and put each on a card. The person can pick one each week for you to do. Or, create a coupon book of services.
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Offer a free meal or take a meal to someone, in your home or eating out or do a themed dinner with activities that match
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Personal training (fitness, arts, hobby, computer, etc.) coupon
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Put old family movies or slides onto a DVD (there are services that can help with this)
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Handprints/footprints on canvas
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Love letter to a spouse, child or family member
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Blank gift certificate where the receiver can fill in the blanks
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Create a calendar on the computer with family members’ birthdays and anniversaries
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Write a poem
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Create a picture collage
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Participate in inexpensive community workshops like dance or cooking classes
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Offer to take someone’s old stuff to sell and get cash (garage sale, books to Bookmans, etc.)
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Homemade crafts or projects
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Jar of Joy - papers in a jar that share how that person brings you or your family joy
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Chore coupon – chores of another that you’ll do when given the coupon
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Tea party
Check out “Rethinking Christmas” and KLOVE’s “Give This Christmas Away” web sites for more ideas on relational gifts.
Activities or gifts that can be included in the ideas above:
| A free night of babysitting |
Yard work |
| A favorite dessert | Playing ball |
| Riding bikes |
Auto repair service – oil change, etc. |
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Wash dishes |
Baked goods |
| Going to the zoo | Back rub |
| Picnic: nearby park, Mt. Lemmon, etc |
For a family gift i think it would be neat to make a puzzle out of an old family/friend photo and then do it together. Don’t tell anyone what it is until you are done of course. Just copy the photo, paste it onto cardboard or your choice of material and start cutting.
I wanted to share one way that we give things to people in our community. There is an organization call Freecycle that you may or may not have heard about. http://www.freecycle.org/ I belong to the Tucson group through Yahoo groups, and every day people post items that they are giving away and items that they need. I have given items to several people that were just laying around my house collecting dust. You can’t imagine the joy of seeing someone’s gratitude when you have the item they need. There is a genuine face-to-face connection with the recipient of your donation which is really valuable. Idea from Lisa Gunther