In the hub bub of Christmas preparations it is sometimes very easy to forget that it should be a time of giving. Many people buy Christmas cards that support particular charities with a proportion of the purchase price going towards their chosen one.
CLAN Cancer Support would like you to take this a wee bit further and is asking that if you take part in Secret Santa that you purchase your gifts from charity shops.
CLAN Cancer Support has shops in Aberdeen’s Rosemount and Chapel Street, Ballater, Kirkwall and Lerwick with a wide range of stock including Christmas gifts and decorations, clothing, shoes, bric-a-brac and household items. The shops are a vital income for CLAN, enabling the charity’s to continue to support people affected by cancer in north-east Scotland, Moray, Orkney and Shetland.
Fiona Fernie, CLAN Cancer Support’s Head of Income Generation and Business Development, said:
“By asking that people only buy presents from charity shops you will be helping to raise much needed additional funds for charities in the run up to Christmas and also adding a fun element to your Secret Santa challenge.
“Each gift bought in our shops allows us to continue to provide and develop the services and information we provide for people affected by cancer 52 weeks of the year.”
CLAN Cancer Support is an independent charity which provides comfort, support and information, free of charge, for anyone, of any age, affected by any type of cancer. CLAN aims to support people to reduce anxiety, stress and to increase their ability to cope with the effects of a serious illness.
Based in Aberdeen, the charity covers the whole of north-east Scotland, Moray, Orkney and Shetland. CLAN has a presence in Ballater, Banchory, Elgin, Buckie, Inverurie, Fraserburgh, Lossiemouth, Peterhead, Turriff, Kirkwall and Lerwick.
For more information about CLAN Cancer Support, please call (01224) 647 000, or visit: www.clanhouse.org
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Getting people ‘Practical Presents’ is another good option for helping charities at Christmas. You can buy, for example, a toilet for a village in Africa, a goat for someone in India, those kind of things. The charity Practical Action is a good source for these practical presents,( https://presents.practicalaction.org/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIs-CN8vzg1wIVqLDtCh3IJAX8EAAYAiAAEgLHx_D_BwE ), but many other charities work along the same lines. Hillside Animal Sanctuary enable you to get bales of hay for people (well, for the horses, really) – that’s a good one for horse lovers. http://hillsideanimalsanctuary.mybigcommerce.com/gifts/
You pay for something, and the recipient gets a card, with a picture of what you’ve bought in their name, and an explanation. Some people kicked up a bit when we first started doing this instead of buying ( mostly unwanted, unneeded) presents for them, as they were quite into getting ‘things’ , but now most of them do the same. These are all people who have what they need, and buy what they want – they didn’t need a load of ‘gifts’ – those strange things which are produced, and sold in their millions, simply to feed the ‘gift’ market. You must have seen those catalogues full of ‘stuff’. No point at all, in a lot of it! So, that cuts out some of the debt-fest, greed-fest aspect.
If we see something that we know someone would simply like to have, we get it for them – whatever the time of year. We’re not total Grinches!
Some folk say they don’t like Christmas, because of the ‘stress’ and all that, I say……just don’t get dragged into the madness, don’t go down that road. Simples!