What Are Your Christmas Charity Options?

It all starts with the look. If you've ever been to a department store during the holiday season, then you know exactly what I'm talking about. You're entering or exiting Wal-Mart, K-Mart, or even Target, and you're taunted with the look. This look can come in many forms; jolly looking men, elderly grannies, and even teenagers will give you the stare down. It isn't bad enough that they throng you with pealing hand bells, attract your attention with red buckets and Santa hats, and beg you into submission for a lousy nickel. This year, the Salvation Army bell ringers are armed with something much worse than the evil eye they reserve for those who walk by without emptying their coin purses. It is in the form of a slogan that reads: "Doing the most good." Many different charities are designed with the same intention of providing a good Christmas to those in need, but how does one determine which charity does the most good? Is good measured by how much money is raised, by how many individuals have been helped, or by how many turkey dinners and toy trucks have been given away? In this article I will explain some of the holiday charities and how they operate.

Perhaps the most well-known charity is the Salvation Army Red Kettle program. The premise is simple. Thousands of people nationwide don Santa hats and ring bells while standing next to shiny red kettles asking for coin donations. The money raised is supposed to go towards helping needy families during the Christmas season. What I didn't realize (until researching this article), is that these same bell ringers that glare at you if you can't spare a dime, are not ringing the bells out of the goodness of their hearts. No, they are doing it for the hourly wage that the Salvation Army offers. I can't deny that this method seems lucrative. These beggars are posted at every store in every town in America, but is the most good determined by the most money raised?

One charity, dear to my heart, is the another Salvation Army tradition. This one is one of my favorite charities, and it is one that I participate in every year. The Salvation Army Angel Tree provides toys, clothes, games, computers, and bikes to children that might otherwise not have anything for Christmas. Christmas trees are posted in towns all across America. Each tree is loaded with wish lists from needy children. To help, all you need to do is pull a name from the tree and return the list attached to a bag of gifts. As a child, I was a Salvation Army Angel, and I can't begin to describe the feeling that I had year after year. I always awoke on Christmas morning thinking that there wouldn't be anything under the tree, and every year the Salvation Army came through for us. Now that I'm an adult, I do my best to recreate that feeling for other children. I can speak from personal experience when I say that does more than just giving gifts to needy children. It shows that someone else cares, and in many, it sparks a tradition of paying it forward. Sadly, every year there are still children left unadopted.

Another well known charity is the Marine Corps Toys For Tots program. This program collects millions of toys all across the country. Drop boxes are placed in thousands of U.S. cities. Participation is easy. All you have to do is place an unwrapped toy in a drop box. You can find these drop boxes at department stores, grocery stores, banks, and many other businesses. If you want to know where to find a drop box, call your local Marine Reserve or Recruiter office, and they can tell you where the closest one can be found.

The Christmas season inspires, in many of us, the spirit of giving. Helping others should feel more like a privilege than an obligation or a nuisance. We should not feel judged by how we choose to give or by how much we are able to give. Helping, in any way that you can, will give hope to needy families that otherwise might have gone forgotten on Christmas Day. It is the gift of hope, more than anything else, that does the most good. Please remember that the next time that you fall victim of the a bell ringers stare.