10 Ways to Give this Holiday Season (& Teach Your Kids to Give, Too)!

If you tune in to my Instagram or Facebook stories, you recently saw a clip of me sitting in the car, waiting out a FULL-BLOWN scream-fest.

Well.

I failed to mention WHY this was happening at the time, but today, it seems relevant.

_________

On the day in reference, while my oldest was in school, I had visited a book fair. When she got out of school, I excitedly gave her the book I had hand-picked for her, in consideration of her fierce love for glitter and unicorns and all of the obnoxiously loud things I personally avoid.

A quick look at the book caused her to immediately start crying (no, wait, I mean SCREAMING) because she wanted this other book instead: the one her sister had. Demanding that we go back to the book fair so that I could buy her the other book instead, we spent the next 40 minutes locked in position in the car, as I helped her to get past the disappointment of receiving the book she didn’t want. (She did not get the other book. Ever. Just FYI).

In that moment, I felt that I had failed. I THOUGHT I was raising our children to be appreciative and gracious. But now, I had just given this child something new, that she didn’t deserve, and she is loudly rejecting what I thought was a thoughtful gift.

It crossed my mind, for a moment, that I had raised an ungrateful child, or even, *cringe* a spoiled child. Gah.

I stopped beating myself up so harshly when I considered that 1. I had a very tired kid in my car which no-doubt compounded her dishevelment, 2. Children are innately selfish and egocentric (as we all are at times), and 3. She’s only 5 and there’s room for growth and teaching.

She really is a great kid with a loving heart and my intent is not to embarrass her here.

But this experience did remind me of a commitment we have made to our girls, to raise them with gracious, loving, and giving hearts. And lately, I probably haven’t done as much teaching in this area as I would like.

So how do we cultivate a spirit of giving, rather than a spirit of self-service, in our kids?

I feel like the best tool we have is to demonstrate the behaviors we want to see in our children. We educate as we demonstrate. We lead by example.

This year, as our family continues to emerge from the depths of raising a third baby, we have more energy and capacity to pursue family-oriented giving, and we plan to do just that!

I have put together a list of the causes we either are already supporting or want to support this year. Some of these on this list are ideas we can do with our kids, and there are others that are less easily done as a family, but I still wanted to include them!

As a Christian, many of these are faith-based organizations, but I tried to include a variety.

Also note: I chose ONLY causes that have a direct connection to me or someone I know and trust. If you’re looking for more info on any of these causes, let me know! Everything is completely unsponsored so you don’t have to worry about anything impacting my list!

Maybe one (or several of these) would work for your family, as well!

Ways We Are Giving This Year:

1. World Relief – World Relief is an international, Christian organization that works with refugees. I have to admit that I have spent many a year not understanding refugee status, and I still have a lot to learn.

One of my personal friends, Karisa, has helped to educate me about the cause. She is a professional artist and a beautiful person (inside and out!) who creates INSANE works of art. Close to her heart is the cause of refugees. She created a book, “When You Can’t Go Home,” in which she tells the stories of 10 refugees, with incredible, accompanying paintings. 50% of the proceeds of the book go to World Relief. I love the idea of buying a book to support the refugee crisis because it starts a conversation in your home. It’s a beautiful coffee table book, and when others in your home see it, and can give you a reason to discuss refugees, and help someone else understand the cause better, leading to greater general support. I’ll be talking more about this on my stories this week. Check out Karisa’s website here: https://karisakeasey.com/ or her Instagram here: Karisa Keasey Art to learn more.

Also, see my stories for a GIVEAWAY OF THIS BOOK, “When You Can’t Go Home,” coming soon! I bought an extra copy because I wanted to share it with you all.

There are MANY other ways to give to World Relief I want to highlight as well: monetary gifts, gifts of furniture and household items, transportation, etc. There are many offices nationwide (and worldwide) with specific needs that you can meet. Find your local office and see what their specific needs are. Our area furnishes apartments weekly for refugees.

We are getting our kids involved by working with them to choose some of their furniture to donate to our local office, as well as letting them choose which items we purchase from the Amazon wishlist that is available to purchase from the office in our area.

2. Operation Christmas Child is run by Samaritan’s Purse International Relief, and is a great way to get your family involved in giving. With this cause, you pack a shoebox for a child, containing fun toys, hygiene items, and school supplies. You drop off the shoebox at a collection station in your area, or mail it back by printing out a label. Collection week is the third week in November (which is NEXT WEEK, friends)!

I love this idea because we can do the shopping and packing together, and the girls actually get their hands on the items, which makes it feel more real.

3. Race for a Cause. We are signing up for a 5k Turkey Trot in our area that supports our local food bank! It’s a great way to have fun as a family and talk about the cause of supporting the food bank. In addition, we will be donating food items to the food bank, as well, as this is something our kids can do with us.

4. Support local missionaries. What a sacrifice it is to leave the country to pursue a specific calling. Our church does a weekly “red sock” offering, in which kids collect change and give them for our missionary offering. Our girls will be participating this way.

Collecting change and giving it away as a family can be an easy way to “see” what you are giving to others.

More ideas for giving!

5. Living Water International – Several of my friends have served with this organization, overseas, and are advocates for the cause of clean water and building wells to communities that do not have access. Another gospel-based organization, I love that they prioritize sharing the message of Christ with the work that they do. There are opportunities for service, as well as supporting the organization financially.

• 

• 

• 

6. World Medical Mission – Close friends of ours did a medical mission trip with World Medical Mission, which is a branch of Samaritan’s Purse. This one is especially close to our heart because it allows physician families to serve using medical skills for a community in need.

Our family would love to participate in a medical mission trip at some point. For now, we will help with financial support of the organization and the trips our friends embark on.

7. Veteran’s Community Project is a very cool project that I recently learned about that is picking up steam. They build tiny houses for veterans, as well as supply them with some food and hygiene packages. There are many ways to give to this cause (Home Depot gifts cards, other financial support, donating to the hygiene and food needs). I especially like being able to pick items out at the store, like for the food and hygiene needs to send to causes! I would love to see this cause spread to other communities.

8. Volunteer at a shelter or food bank as a family. Many projects have a minimum age for volunteers, or do not allow drop-ins, so be sure to check the website or give them a call before you head out. THIS website has a nice list of volunteering opportunities in each state that allow kids to help: 

9. Adopt-a-family. Many places around town have ways to sponsor a family (i.e., take a tag off of a tree). My office at my previous workplace always adopted a family, and we always appreciated the opportunity to support a family in need.

10. Support a company or podcast you love. Ya’ll KNOW I love a great podcast, and it feels good to help keep them going by supporting them financially. I’ve always wanted to support Radiolab by NPR, and have also heard that Seeds Family Worship is a great cause to support (and that they sometimes send free gifts of thanks to their supporters). They make Bible verses into music kids love (and more)!

______________________

There you have it! How are you giving this year?! Even the smallest donation can make a huge difference to a cause. I hope each of us can find one close to our hearts this year.

And after you’ve supported some important causes, join me next week as we talk gift guides for the important, loved people in your life (just in time for Black Friday)!

I LOVE THE HOLIDAYS, friends! 🎉

See you soon! XO!❤️

Honestly,

AM ❤️❤️

More About Me: Hi! I’m Ann Marie, a blogging mama of 3 tiny gals, and a wife to a busy Orthopedic Surgeon. You can find me right here for a weekly smattering of inspiration for your motherhood journey, home, marriage (I see you other medical wives!), style, and beauty. You’ll find me most active on Instagram or Facebook for life between blog posts. And I truly can’t wait to see you there, friend. ❤️💋

To connect, shoot me an email at honestlyannmarie@gmail.com ❤️