• Buy Local: purchase a special handmade gift at your local craft sale or from a neighborhood store you can walk to.
• Gifts You Have Created or Recycled: Books, CDs, videos, crafts, wood carving, paintings, and your baked treats. Write a booklet of your favorite recipes, stories, jokes, life experiences, wisdom and poetry.
• Gifts of Experience: taking others to see Christmas lights, Christmas Eve services, relatives, concerts, plays, or museums.
• Gifts of Ourselves: breakfast in bed, car washing, garage cleaning, babysitting, yard work, back rubs, or other forms of uninterrupted time.
• Gifts in Honor of Our Loved Ones: consider donating to a charity or worthy non-profit organization in honor of your family and friends. Another idea is to give 25% of what you spent last year to the needy.

Contact one or more of the organizations listed below to get more information on how you can give money, time and skills to those in need.

Amnesty International USA
322 8th Avenue, New York, NY 10001 (212) 633-4256 www.amnestyusa.org promotes human rights around the world

Bread for the World
1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite 1000, Silver Spring, MD 20910 (301) 608-2400 www.bread.org promotes education and legislation on issues of international and domestic hunger and justice

Catholic Campaign for Human Development
c/o Office of Justice and Peace w Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon 2838 East Burnside, Portland, OR 97214 503-233-8361 promotes funding for local grassroots organizations working to change the cycle of poverty

Catholic Charities Oregon
231 SE 12th Ave., Portland OR 97214-9813 (503) 231-4866 www.catholiccharitiesoregon.org annually serves over 125,000 of our Oregon neighbors without regard to faith, race, ethnicity, marital status, gender or condition in life.

Catholic Relief Services
209 West Fayette Street Baltimore, MD 21201 (410) 625-2220 www.catholicreliefservices.org assists the poor and disadvantaged outside of this country

Habitat for Humanity
121 Habitat Street Americus, GA 31709 (800) HABITAT w www.habitat.org works in partnership with poor people around the world to build simple, decent houses

Heifer Project International
P.O. Box 808 Little Rock, AR 72203 (800) 422-0474 www.heifer.org provides livestock and training to needy families in 107 countries

Mercy Corps International
Dept. W PO Box 2669 Portland, OR 97208-2669 www.mercycorps.org works to alleviate suffering, poverty, and oppression by helping people build secure, productive, and just communities

Migration and Refugee Services (MRS)
United States Catholic Conference 3211 Fourth Street, NE Washington, DC 20017-1194 (202) 541-3220 www.nccbuscc.org/mrs w offers opportunities for parishes and individuals to assist newcomers

National Council of Catholic Women (NCCW)
1275 K Street, NW, Suite 975 Washington, DC 20005 (202) 682-0338 www.nccw.org co-sponsors with Catholic Relief Services programs which allow parishes and individuals to sponsor poor children around the world and support clean water projects

Network
801 Pennsylvania Ave SE Suite 460 Washington, DC 20003-2167
(202) 547-5556 www.networklobby.org national Catholic social justice lobby which provides advocacy for the poor and disadvantaged

Oxfam America
26 West Street Boston, MA 02111-1206 (617) 482-1211 www.oxfamamerica.org promotes self-help development and disaster relief projects in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Caribbean

Pax Christi USA
348 East 10th Street Erie, PA 16503 (814) 453-4955 www.paxchristiusa.org/ Catholic peace movement - works with all people for peace for all humankind, always witnessing to the Peace of Christ

Sisters of the Road Cafe
133 NW Sixth Avenue Portland, Oregon 97209 (503)222-5694 www.sistersoftheroadcafe.org an estimated 250-300 meals are served daily through Sisters' Hot Meals Program w

Or give your time, money and energy to other worthy organizations you know of this Christmas season, and the rest of the year.