Gift Giving

I feel as though Christmas has become more about stress than joy. It is important to me to give gifts which show that I have some inkling about a person, or at the very least that I gave it a lot of thought. I personally do not want random stuff, and I figure other people feel the same way. I mean, any gift is appreciated, and I am certainly not a minimalist. I love my toys and gadgets. Still, I would be just as happy if the gift exchange could be trading off taking eachother to dinner or a movie, or something we both enjoy.

In surfing the web I came across something that intrigued me. I am not so inclined toward the "a donation was made in your name" gift idea, unless it is a charity which is dear to the recipient's heart and life. This is different though. I have seen companies that name a star for your recipient, or adopt a whale/wolf/sloth/whatever. I have even heard of purchasing a plot of ocean as a gift (pretty cool in its novelty) but this site offers tree planting in honor of your friend or family member. There are no plaques or signs or maps to go visit their tree, so it is like the donation in someone's name but I still think it is a warm fuzzy. The Christmas gift they offer is a nice little package. They plant a tree in your choice of state or country, and send a certificate, a card and a leaf ornament.

They also sell seedlings that you can plant yourself and create a memorial that can be visited and nurtured. For the trees that they plant, treegivers.com enlists the help of youth organizations around the world to do the planting, with the help of experts to ensure these trees are going to thrive.

Maybe most of us could stand to get a little less under our tree this Christmas and put a few more trees out in our world. It can only help, right?