Looking for that last minute gift

If you're a procrastinator (and I'm sure there are a few of you out there in our readership circles), then perhaps you're still looking for that perfect Christmas gift for someone. If so, read on. If you're "all done shopping" good for you, but still read on - you can never have too many good ideas for gifts.

Since my family really doesn't need anything, and my parents' garage is bulging at the seams, a few years ago I was looking for some other kind of gift for them and I thought of doing a donation to a charity. Nearly all charities will let you make a donation in the name of someone, but sometimes you don't really "get" anything that you could package up as a "gift". Please don't let that stop you from donating, but one charity that I've gone back to a few times is the Best Friends Animal Society in Utah.

Again, you can just make a plain donation to Best Friends and they will eventually send you a nice letter thanking you for your donation. But another option that Best Friends has come up with, and I wish other animal-related charities would also do, is their sponsor an animal program. Here you can pick the dog, cat, barnyard animal, wildlife creature, etc. that you can "sponsor". The animals that are up for sponsorship all have a nice picture and a great/sad backstory of their life prior to coming to the Best Friends Sanctuary.  I like to copy and paste the picture and story onto a homemade card and give that to my gift recipients.

So, if you're like most people, looking for that "perfect" gift for the person who has everything, think about a charitable donation to Best Friends or any other charity of your choice. Think outside of the box in this world full of wastefulness. Does Aunt Suzie really need another pair of slippers? Do your parents really need another holiday salt and pepper shaker combo set? Non-profits never have enough money and charitable donations are always appreciated. So spend your money somewhere where it will truly be appreciated. And who knows, if you get other people thinking about charitable giving, maybe they will start doing it, too.