Donate To...

Oxfam Unwrapped are encouraging people to buy useful gifts that help others this year with a fun tv advert featuring the likes of Helen Bonham Carter, Will Young, Rob Brydon and Helen Mirren. The advert shows the stars with the traditional “useless” gifts we sometimes give each other, and then suggests to buy something more useful to help others.

Some of the gifts you can buy from Oxfam Unwrapped include:

Feed children’s hungry minds. Buy 100 school dinners. £6

Build a toilet and help prevent the spread of deadly disease. £30

25,000 die every year from waterborne diseases. Give safe water. £36

Plant some hope. Buy an allotment. £24

Buy some mosquito nets and help prevent the spread of malaria. £15

Feed a family for a month. £25

Many mother’s and children die during childbirth. Help and train a midwife. £46

If you like the TV advert then Oxfam have released a video of the outtakes over on Youtube.

Animal Adoption packages are another great christmas gift idea that helps charity, but is also a step away from the traditional socks, chocolates and gadgets. There are a number of different animal adoption packs you can buy! For example with the WWF you can help support the following animals: Rhino, Bengal Tiger, Panda, Polar Bear, Orang-utan, Bottlenose Dolphin and Asian Elephant!

Each pack contains a soft toy plus pictures and information about your adopted animal. Order before December 13th for Christmas delivery from WWF.

Adopt a Monkey!
Not many people know that there’s a Monkey Sanctuary near to Swansea, Wales. It’s a fantastic day out and well worth a visit. Adopt a Monkey and you’ll get a personalised adoption certificate, an information sheet about your adopted animal and a membership card – so you can visit the sanctuary!

Adopt a Reindeer!
For something more Christmassy, Buyagift invite you to Adopt a Reindeer. You’ll get a cuddly reindeer and an adoption pack, including certificate plus you’ll be helping the Cairngorm reindeer sanctuary! They also offer a Reindeer Adoption Experience, Animal Adoption Packs (choose from over 50 animals) and Donkey Adoption.

Adopt a Donkey!
If you’re keen on Donkeys then you can also adopt a donkey from The Donkey Sanctuary. The adoption fee is £15 per year and you will receive details of the donkey you decide to adopt. Be quick though for Christmas as orders and payments need to be in before December 12th.

Adopt a Badger!
For something different then why not Adopt a Badger. These can be bought from Prezzybox, who also have adopt an elephant, adopt a dolphin, adopt a snow leopard, adopt a reindeer and adopt a tiger packs too. It does seem odd to see a badger amongst those animals though! The badger pack contains a cuddly toy and tshirt.

Wondering what to get your grandparents, best friend, cousin, brother-in-law this Christmas? World Vision Alternative Gifts has its best range ever to help you find that perfect gift this Christmas. Favourite gifts such as fruit trees (£10), goats (£17) and child vaccinations (£20) have been combined with unique new gifts like a cowpat stove (£34) and a llama (£45)! In addition, the website has been redesigned to make finding and buying gifts even easier.

If your friend is a teacher, you can check out the education gift range, or a gardening aunt will probably enjoy one of the farming gifts, including seeds and fruit trees. If you have a price in mind, you can search by price – there’s 35 gifts from £5-20! You can also choose from a large range of free cards to personalise for your friends and family.

The best thing about World Vision Alternative Gifts is that they bring a smile to more than one person. As one of our supporters, Sue, told us, “My granddaughter gave me the gift of a nanny goat for my birthday and I couldn’t be more thrilled!” The family in Malawi, who received the goat, were even more excited. They now can breed goats to sell, earning an income so they can afford to send their children to school.

World Vision Alternative Gifts has 79 gifts to choose from, which will directly benefit 34 of World Vision’s community projects across 16 developing countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and South America. There are also a range of emergency gifts that allow World Vision to respond quickly in emergency situations caused by natural disasters or conflicts. With all gifts having been specifically requested as part of projects by the communities, you can be sure your gift really will make a real difference to the lives of others this Christmas time.

A Letter from Santa is a popular Christmas gift for kids. It can be personalised and then delivered, specially postmarked, to appear that it’s been sent by Father Christmas himself. Now wouldn’t it be great if you could have a letter sent from Santa AND help other children too!

Well, The NSPCC are running a special Letter from Santa campaign and you can support them for just £5For a suggested donation of £5 The NSPCC can arrange for Santa to take time out of his busy schedule and send a letter to who you’d like to receive a Christmas message. Children will be thrilled but you may even know some big kids who would be equally excited.

By making the suggested donation of £5 you can ensure that not only will you be bringing joy to children you know, but you’ll also be helping the NSPCC and ChildLine bring an end to cruelty to children. Orders can be placed until 14 December 2007 (UK and Channel Islands). The closing date for letters to be sent to the Republic of Ireland is 12 December. A sample letter is available too.

Send an NSPCC Letter from Santa

Yellow Moon is a unique online store in that it allows you to earn money for charity just by shopping with them. Shop for hard to find arts & crafts, educational games, fun toys and gizmos for all the family and Yellow Moon will donate up to 25% on every purchase to your school, group or charity! As well as the cashback on every purchase, your School, Group or Charity could win £1000 from Yellow Moon.

Every order they receive from you gives your chosen organisation an entry into the competition to win £1000. The more times you order the more chances they have to win.

There are plenty of gift ideas for Christmas including a wide range of stocking fillers, plus there are special offers including:

Self-Adhesive Foam Borders

Stick-on Wooden Xmas Bears

Mini Fluffy Penguins

Christmas Mini Scrapbook Kit

Christmas Glitter Fairies

My First School Year Calendar

You can also save £3.45 on P&P on all orders over £50 until the end of 2007.