· As a family, spend less money but more time together.
· Donate to a group like Heifers, Inc. or other local or national groups which serve the poor. Donate to hunger programs, so others will have a happy Christmas.
· Visit websites such as www.SimpleLiving.or for ideas for non-commercial gifts.
· Put out fewer Christmas lights this year to save electricity and help global warming.
· Donate healthy foods to the Food Pantry (not just canned goods).
· Plan to provide packets of seeds or vegetable plant starts in the spring for low-income people to grow in their yards.
· Spend some family time in prayer and discussion about the real meaning of Christmas. “Buy less, love more, laugh harder”. (Exodus 20:17)
· For information on healthy toys, go to: www.fairtradesports.com, or www.healthytoys.org.
· Keep the spirit of Advent burning bright in your family.

In his book, STARLIGHT, Fr. John Shea tells us that our minds are not “at home on the earth”; they are not rooted in the graciousness of God’s presence. “Peace will not be won by our affluence and technology until we know the earth as our home, and all people as inhabitants of a common house.” Here is that idea, expressed in a poem by G.K. Chesterton:

To an open house in the evening,
Home shall men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are home.

- The House of Christmas