The holidays mean a lot of different things to people. As soon as Thanksgiving is over and Black Friday shopping is finished, most people in the United States start to gear up for Christmas. Trees, lights, outdoor decorations, shopping...it's all part of the new commercialized "holiday package" that this little section of the world seems to enjoy.

All of those things are undeniably fun, but it's easy to forget the cliched "real reason" we celebrate Christmas. And, like I said, although the sentiment is cliched, the tone of what the holidays should be about can't really be pushed to the side.

You can open all your presents on Christmas day, admire the hundreds of dollars spent to make you happy for one morning...but as soon as you step into church after Christmas and hear your pastor or preacher speak about the first Christmas, that little twinge of guilt about your commercialized fun is pretty hard to ignore.

Even Wikipedia.org has this written first in the "Christmas" entry:

Christmas is an annual holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus.

What better way to celebrate the birth of Jesus and combine some of the gift-giving that is now customary around the holidays than by giving friends and family a Global Giving Gift Certificate?

You can use your certificate to donate directly to over 400 screened international relief groups in these different categories: Aids Epidemic, Climate Change, Democracy & Governance, Economic Development, Education, Evironment, Gender & Equality, Health, Human Rights, Technology, Sustainable Agriculture, and Water Health.

Instead of focusing on yourself this Christmas, why not remember the real reason we celebrate in the first place...and help bring happiness to someone else's life at the same time?

Labels: events, on campus, spiritual, worship