Christmas Present Spoiler: You're Getting a Chicken

Or maybe a goat, if you're good. Or a radio. Or a bucket. Or a water filter.

We're giving our family and friends proxy gifts this year: we're donating to Oxfam, who will in turn buy a vet-checked chicken and a year's feed to a family in a developing nation. It's a great thing for kids, because they can name the chicken and look up the country on a globe and learn about how important their chicken will be to the family who's looking after it for the child. A great opportunity to tell them what Christmas is really for, and how incredibly easy it is to change the world.

And corporate gifts? Who needs yet another whatever? Tell your clients they got a $58 goat named after them in Chad, and the milk will keep 4 children healthy while saving their eyesight. Or a $20 water bucket that keeps mosquitos out, or $22 worth of water filtration to provide potable water for an entire village?

How about $39 worth of tools? Or a $105 bike that will create a small business and connect villages? Or a $15 radio that can act as a virtual school, promote democracy AND coordinate emergency planning?

Oxfam Unwrapped