Day 96 - Oprah's Top 8 Great Charities

Photographer: Filomena Scalise

For $100, you could give Aunt Hilda a nice scarf...or you could give her a $50 scarf and send $50 to protect five African families from malaria. Feels better, doesn't it?

 

Maybe you're fed up with holiday consumerism. Or maybe you're fed up with anti-consumer holiday purism. Whichever side of the to-buy-or-not-to-buy debate you favor, this year we encourage you to straddle the fence and adopt what Gregg Easterbrook, author of The Progress Paradox, calls the "half and half" holiday. The idea: For every dollar you spend on a gift, donate an equal amount to charity. Or, for every real gift you purchase, contribute the same amount to a group that champions the recipient's favorite cause. "Half as much is actually twice as good," says Easterbrook, who's been practicing the principle with his family since 2001. "We don't sacrifice the gifts, but we have more of a sense of fulfillment and the spiritual meaning of the holidays."

 

read the read of Penny Wrenn's article on oprah.com

This article was first published in 2007. How many folks took it to heart and change their holiday traditions and started giving to those in need?