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My Traditional Christmas Gift Guide 2014 #TMMGG2014

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Several weeks ago I announced my Gifts with Heart gift guide here on Thrifty Momma’s Tips. That Christmas gift guide 2014 is meant exclusively this year for gifts that give back to the world, or the community. Right now that means that it is dominated by World Vision Canada gifts. A gift from the catalogue there gives back to children and families living in poverty around the world. I have launched that guide and asked all my personal friends and family members to buy things such as artisan gifts from the World Vision gift catalogue. Many of my friends have informed me they are already doing that. Margarita Ibbott has picked out very special choices for each of her family members and she took the challenge to heart. Then again their family is like that. They support a lot of really important causes and local charities too every year. They have giant hearts. Some have tweeted that they purchased their gifts from World Vision Canada. This year my good friend Lee-Ann and I have decided our gift exchange benefits World Vision Canada.  Candace is buying items that matter by saving money on stocking stuffers this year. I am thrilled with that.

However, in the last few weeks, dozens of toys and gifts also started arriving at my house. I puzzled over what to do because I have asked people not to gift us material goods this year. My family is not gifting things but experiences, travel, time together and heartfelt donations to World Vision Canada. But brands and hot products are still arriving to my business. ‘Tis the season. I had a very traditional gift guide here last year. It was the first year ever and it was super successful. By nature of what I do as a blogger I realize that I need to also extend a traditional guide to the brands I love like Fisher Price sending me products to consider. So today I am starting the entries in that gift guide. Please email first so I know what to expect and where to slot the product in my editorial lineup. My contact info is here: inkscrblr@rogers.com.

I will consider all submissions and emails to this Gift Guide just as I did last year, and we can negotiate terms privately. But on December 21st, in the spirit of giving I will be donating the toys that arrive here so that someone else can have a present this year. My kids don’t need rooms full of toys. I don’t need a house full of toys. So, with exception of 2-3 items I am giving my sweet niece and nephews, I will donate all of the Gift Guide toys here to a local charity, or two charities. Perhaps we will sponsor a bunch of kids, through the Angel Tree or a family through a different charity. I work closely with brands all year and I underestimated the number of people who would be emailing me this year, and the number who would just send through toys and hair products and gadgets and gifts. So I will share posts and thoughts about each of the items with my readers. Then I want you to weigh in, especially if you live in London, Ontario. Do you have a local charity that you would like to see me share the gift guide toys with? If so please leave a comment.

Mom of two beautiful active girls, traveller, fitness junkie, social media consultant, and keeper of the sanity.