There's No Place like MicroPlace for the Holidays

It's that time of year again. Way before the turkeys have been carved, the holiday chaos of cash registers cheering and ringing has already begun. Each year, I find the consumerism trends of our great nation even more depressing.

Just the other day an acquaintance commented to me that with young children, "everyone knows that the holidays aren't about the quality, it's about the quantity of the gifts Santa leaves under the tree."

Hmm. It's a little difficult for me to get into the holiday spirit with that mindset.

For as long as I can remember, my mom and my grandparents always made a point to help out others throughout the year, and not just at Christmas. This is an important value that I am grateful they instilled through the every day examples in their lives. It is also a tradition that my family continues. Since I was a child, it was just as important to shop for angel tree gifts as if that unknown angel child was simply another member of our extended family. My grandmother would say that sometimes Santa needed extra helpers and we were just being extra helpers.

For years, I really looked forward to angel tree shopping. Even as a college student, whose bills were just barely paid every month, I never forgot to pick up an angel tree child. However through the years, I've noticed that, in general, the wants lists get longer and longer. Not to mention more expensive. I'm amazed at what so-called needy children ask Santa Claus for. Sadly, it's gotten to a point where I simply can't justify buying a $300 toy for an angel tree child that I would never buy for my own child or my own little cousins who are similar ages.

I'm not intentionally trying to sound like a Scrooge, because I know that there are wonderful organizations and lots of people and children who truly do benefit from these types of great services. I guess it has just made me really question, what does it truly mean to be poor and impoverished? Or, whom am I really helping in buying expensive toys and presents to the tune of nearly half of one month's bills?

My family has a slogan that I've heard all my life, particularly when I'm complaining about how I can't do something. "The Lord helps those that help themselves."

I have come to realize that, more often than not, this does not mean that the Lord is really helping those individuals that generously help themselves to the mere handouts of others. By giving a child an expensive gift, sure I might be helping make that child's Christmas day a lot brighter. Yet, what about two weeks after Christmas when the newness has worn off, the next back-to-school gotta have it fad arises, or when the toy's cheap plastic breaks?

How much help was I really? Was my generosity in vain? Did I serve a want? Or did I truly serve a need?

Most people, at one time or another, experience financial difficulties. While we may be struggling to make ends meet ourselves, it's not that we mind spreading a little holiday cheer. However, it's a lot to ask to look deep into our hearts and also our pocketbooks to spend money on other people's children that we may not have to spend on our own. Realistically, if I can't buy my own child a brand new computer, would I truly buy one for the angel tree child just because that happens to be the one important item on his or her wish list this year?

To be honest, things like that are simply not within my means right now. I'd probably ignore the exorbitant request and instead purchase what I felt were the really "needed" items on the list like clothing, a coat, shoes, socks, and underwear. I'm sure a disappointed angel child in Any City, USA is probably somewhere thinking, "Yeah right. Some lousy Christmas." But if so, what did that child truly need anyway?

It seems that I'm living in a society that continues to grow more out of touch with reality as the items we want become literally the items we say we need, can't live without, and demand as well as expect to receive.

This year, I think I'm going to avoid the whole holiday shopping excursion at the mall. Instead, I'm thinking about sending my meager donation somewhere that a motivated person who is truly impoverished might be able to take it and turn it into something that they have been dreaming about.

The new MicroPlace website allows a small person like me the opportunity to invest in poorer developing countries through microfinance. Microfinance is a proven tool that allows the poor to lift themselves up through their own efforts and entrepreneurial spirits. This, in essence, seems to truly epitomize the notion of the Lord helping those who really aspire to and want to help themselves.

In spreading a little Christmas cheer this year, perhaps there really is no place like MicroPlace for the holidays. Maybe just maybe, Santa Claus has found a way to send sugarplums to places like Cambodia. As I nestle myself into bed tonight, it's at least a Christmas spirit idea that I don't mind dancing around in my head.