roadtorobusto

I don’t think I’ve written about this before and now seems like as good of a time as any (waiting around for a video to finish producing), so here goes…

Last year, my family on my dad’s side decided to stop doing the “typical” Christmas.  Up until then we had always bought each other gifts; some years it was a bigger ordeal than others, but the holidays inevitably ended with me buying things for my wife, sisters, dad, mom, stepmom, stepsisters (all of whom we’re close with), and more.  I’m sure you all can sympathize.

On top of that, we usually were opted into another gift exchange where we’d draw a name from a hat and be “responsible” for donating to that person as well, for the more extended family.  It was fun, but I always left feeling like I got a bunch of things that I didn’t really need, and usually I ended up feeling like I had forgotten someone or bought something as a placeholder because I really didn’t know them that well.  I’ve bought more than my fair share of smelly bath soap packages just because I didn’t know what else to get.  It was exciting, but the feeling of joy was transient, conditional, and sometimes even felt a bit petty.

Fast-forward to last Thanksgiving: we decided to try something different.  No more gift drawings.  No more gifts, period.  Instead of buying each other things, each person who was at the family Thanksgiving wrote down the name of a charity that meant something special to them.  We put our names and charities in a hat, and then each person drew a charity to donate to (on the behalf of the person whose name they drew).  It’s been a while so I don’t remember all of the charities, but I do remember 826 Seattle, The Friendship House, Opportunity International, Kiva, and more. On Christmas after we gave the donations, we talked about what we had learned about the charity, and shared why they were important to us.  There was one condition for giving gifts: if you wanted to give something — if you desperately needed to give something — you could, but it had to be hand-made (by yourself).  So last year, I gave to Opportunity International and hand-roasted a half a pound of coffee for my stepsister Alison.  We asked the rest of our family to donate to charities (of their choice) rather than buying us gifts.  It was, by far, the best Christmas I can remember.

This year, my charity is The Water Project, a charity challenging me (and others) to give up all drinks besides water; for two weeks (in early January for me, I’ll announce it when I’ve started it), my stepsister Jenny and I will only be drinking water, and will donate the money we would have spent on coffee, wine, scotch, soda, whatever — to the water project to help them build wells in impoverished areas without access to clean water.  I’ll be donating to her charity, a Domestic Violence prevention center in the area where we grew up.

I can’t wait until Christmas.  This is the first Christmas tradition that I’ve really felt is “mine,” but it’s one that I’m glad to share with as many people as possible.

Merry Christmas, everyone.