Some years ago a DU member who had been homeless posted a list of things

[Jarqui]

10. For the holidays this year, we're not exchanging gifts

We moved from the suburbs to an area closer to the area we call "downtown". It's been heart wrenching for all of us to walk past all these unfortunate people in the streets. Some days I come home, I'm near tears. It is so sad and awful - they are so destitute in so many ways. We started putting our change in a dish and we grab a handful when we go for a walk to the store. But you know that you can never do enough - there are simply too many of them.

My daughter came up with the idea about not exchanging gifts this year. She did some research and came up with a battered women's shelter to help. We went to a place she found and filled the trunk of our car with economical but new clothes for these women and their kids. We got a 50% off employee discount on top from someone we knew there. Then my daughter, who is working for minimum wage pays for the whole thing - hundreds of dollars. My jaw dropped. She worked really hard for that money ... and in doing so, she kind of left us out of it. I'm very proud of her and don't want to bicker with her about it being "too much" (even though I kind of feel it's a little over the top for her).

So this list is welcome because there's a bunch of ideas that are great to add to what my daughter got for them.

All the best