Christmas gifts that give twice

At the risk of sounding like a Grinch, I’m really not a huge fan of Christmas. I have no problem with people getting together to enjoy delicious food and one anothers’ company, but the crazy commercialism urging people to buy more and more stuff that they don’t need, largely for the sake of protocol, really sickens me. So I was quite pleased to be able to write a piece for The New Daily lately about charity gifts – that is, gifts that benefit not only the recipient but animals, the planet or particular groups of people. It was quite hard to narrow down my list as these days there are so many great charity gifts for all kinds of causes, but if you want to see what I came up with, click here. I was particularly impressed with the variety of fabulous products available in the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre catalogue and the Good Gift Shop – if you ever have to buy me a present, you’re welcome to shop there, haha.

Coincidentally, a few days after the list went up on The New Daily, I received this:

If I had known about Vinnies gift cards, they would have made my list too! Vinnies sent this to me as a thank you for helping to get the word out about their Ringwood store earlier this year – even though, of course, the pleasure was all mine (I got to visit an op shop and take home treasures! I should be the one saying thank you!!). Anyway, as I didn’t get to mention the gift card in my article, I thought I’d let you know about it here. At the moment it’s only available in Victoria, but look out for it in other states later. It’s a great idea for op shop and vintage lovers at any time of year. 

Those are just some ideas for gifts that give twice at Christmas, although there’s many, many more – if you have some tips, why not share them with the rest of us and help your favourite cause?

日本ではあまりクリスマスプレゼントをあげたりしないと思いますが、オーストラリアでは「あの人のためにも。。そしてあの人のためにも買わなきゃ！」と、プレゼントの買い物で忙しい人は多いです。私はあまり人にプレゼントをしないけれど、どうせ買うなら同時にチャリティに寄付したいと思います。最近、チャリティプレゼントが増えて来たので、本当に選択が広まっていいアイテムが沢山です。The New Dailyではそういうチャリティプレゼントについて記事を書いたので、もしプレゼントアイデアを探しているならどうぞご覧下さい！そして、そのリストを書いた直後、カルマかも知れませんが、チャリティショップのVinniesからギフトカードが届きました。リストには間に合わなかったけど、とてもいいアイデアだと思います（現在ビクトリア州の支店のみで利用可能）。Vinniesはほぼどこにでもあるので、チャリティショップ好きの友達や親戚のプレゼントを探しているなら、このギフトカードをお勧めします！そして皆さんのチャリティプレゼントのお勧めありましたら、是非教えて下さいね！