Merry Christmas!

This year will be the second Christmas where my immediate family and I jointly decided not to exchange any gifts. For the past few years we had all been trying to come up with ideas to make the holiday season less stressful, economically and emotionally. Different ideas that have come up are (a) do the shopping in August, (b) only buy one small gift per family member, (c) each person buy one gift and do the "Chinese" gift exchange thing. Finally, unanimously, we voted NAY for gifts. Could we really do Christmas with no gifts?! Yes! Hallelujah Jesus, Mary and Joseph...it's great!

Last year we simply ruled out gifts and put our money towards having a shin-dig at our place with our family and friends. Booze. Hors d'ourves. Festive napkins. A new Bing Crosby Christmas CD. Plushy sleeping bags for those who needed to sleep on the couch (haha, joking...or am I?). This year though, we decided to participate in the Christmas Bureau's Hamper Sponsorship program...check it out: http://www.christmasbureau.ca/sponsorship/

How it works is that families who are in need and cannot afford a Christmas dinner are given the contents to make a delicious Christmas dinner with help from voluntary members of the community. Each family who volunteers is emailed out a list of groceries to buy for either a small, medium or large family and is also required to buy a hamper to put the groceries in, along with small gifts for the children in the family.

On December 17th, all the hampers are delivered to the families in need. Before delivery happens, all volunteers are required to stop by the Edmonton Expo Centre (this is hub of the Hamper program) to register, collect the address of the home they are going to, and to pick up a frozen turkey to go along with their hamper. Deliveries happen between 11am and 2pm and is quite an extraordinary event!

When my family and I arrived at the Expo Centre, we were greeted by cheerful volunteers who were efficiently handling all the behind-the-scenes action. Turkeys were being tossed left and right, the media was there conducting all sorts of interviews, and volunteers were trying to round up families who were willing to deliver more than their one hamper...as there were more hampers than delivery people!

Our family ended up delivering our hamper plus 3 more. It was an awesome event and, I think, a great way to participate in Christmas. It was pretty kool to meet the families and see how happy they were to receive their hamper-o-goodies. It was equally as kool to see how excited my own family got! My Dad was just tickled and eager to get all the hampers delivered, my Mum was the one who initiated the process, and my brother and I were up for a new spin on Christmas. I think this may just be our new Christmas tradition.

Whatjah think? Ditch the gifts and buy a hamper!!

Merry Christmas to all those who are reading...in Edmonton, Victoria and around the world!

Merry Christmas! This is the only family shot I could find. Probably the most ridiculous family photo of us out there...for the world to see...