Now that we are somewhat settled back home, one of the things that I hope to do more often is contribute to Kids in the Capital, an awesome website for Ottawa families.  The post that I have up there today is on Giving Back at the Holidays. It’s an update of a post that I wrote two years ago, inspired then by some discussions about how to involve really small children in some charitable giving around the holidays.   When I got involved in some similar conversations last month, I figured that it was time for an update.  It was also time for me to look for inspiration for our own family.

This is the third year that our family is following Missfish’s twist on an advent calendar, where we do twenty-five days of Christmas-y activities in the month of December.  We have planned for at least one third of the activities to involve a charitable giving component. This year, the lils have asked many more questions than the last two years, and have really started to think about what the giving means.  Like when we were sorting through old snowsuits for The Snowsuit Fund last night, and Woo came across a toque that just fit his head.  He insisted on keeping it, so I asked how many toques he had and he answered that he had about eighteen (the real total is three). So I asked him how many he could wear at once, and if he thought that a boy or girl who didn’t have a hat would like a warm head on cold days.  He thought for a minute, brought it back to the pile and helped me count up the toques to see how many little people could now have warm heads.  He got it.

Many of the activities that we are doing as a family are listed in the post on Kids in the Capital.  Please check it out if you are looking for ideas for your own family.