Behold, I bring you good tidings and great news, there's only 56 more sleeps until Christmas.
It's lucky I was at Sears the other day to see the holly jolly figures of everything festive being poured onto the shelves, or I might not have started the countdown in time for this week's paper.
I used to wait until I bought all the half-price post-Halloween candy before I started thinking about Christmas candy to come. I'm starting to think that stores would save a lot of trouble re-merchandising if they just lobbied for a change in fall colours.
Garland makes good spider webs, and the pilgrims probably wore Santa hats. We could simply say, "Happy Hallow-days-giving," and have candy, corn, turkey, and figgy pudding for three months.
I'm sure the trick-or-treat Elmo would be a big seller.
Speaking of big sellers, 42 Meaford residents and 25 from Thornbury joined over 90,000 Canadians in spending a combined $18 million ordering Christmas gifts from one catalogue - the World Vision Gift Catalogue. It's an international wish book, but contrary to so many others, it's filled with gifts people need.
This year, World Vision's catalogue, available online, features a few new gifts. For $75, donors can pay for one child soldier to be "restored to safety and hope" through a reintegration program. For $60, donors can help an Afghan farmer grow pomegranates, saffron, pistachios and more.
There are many other practical and much-needed gifts available for purchase in the gift catalogue including goats, fruit trees, village latrines, shelters, warm clothing, emergency supplies, clean water equipment, solar panels for power generation and school supplies.
Here's the only statistic I'm going to quote, because I think you already know the dire need of so many people across the globe.
World Vision Canada conducted a poll with the help of survey experts Ipsos Reid and found that seven in 10 Canadians say they don't need anything for Christmas.
Of course, Christmas is a time for giving gifts, and it's an exciting thing to do. Why not add one or two gifts to your list from the gift catalogue?
Charities like World Vision give Canadians the opportunity to give even more at Christmas time - the chance to give sweaters that won't be returned and food that won't go bad. There are lots of charities to give to this Christmas, including local food banks, outreaches and churches.
It's the tradition that St. Nicholas started and the reason for those city block sized department stores drowning in cinnamon candles and glittering plastic icicles.
Give some extra love this Christmas.
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