Focus | Consumers in the Christmas spirit

  
Story by Chris Graham
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That 95 percent of Americans agree on anything is worthy of a news story.

“The number that really stuck out to me from the survey is that 95 percent of Americans think it is important to help kids during the holiday season. That number, we expect it to be high, but that number is very, very high. It would be hard to find something else that 95 percent of Americans would agree on,” said Justin Greeves, a senior vice president at Harris Interactive, which conducted a survey of attitudes toward gift-giving this holiday season, and found that despite the continuing economic slowdown most Americans still have something of a Christmas spirit left in them.

Another interesting finding in the survey – three out of four surveyed told Harris Interactive that they would prefer to receive a meaningful gift that would help someone else instead of a traditional holiday gift like clothing or electronics.

If you’re among that big subset of people who want to help kids and who would prefer to receive a meaningful gift, think Gift Catalog, a seasonal offering from World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization based in Federal Way, Washington.

Twenty-five dollars buys two chickens for a family in the Third World. Thirty dollars buys five ducks; seventy-five dollars buys a goat capable of producing 16 cups of fresh milk a da.

“And that can change somebody’s life. I’ve seen it with my own eyes,” said Devin Hermanson, the senior director of Gift Catalog.

“We’re hoping if we can get that message out that people can see that it doesn’t cost that much, and that they can make a tremendous difference with just a little bit of effort,” Hermanson said.

You can be traditional in your gift-giving and still be helpful to the greater good by using GoodSearch.com and GoodShop.com. Nonprofits across the country receive donations through the websites for web searches conducted via GoodSearch.com and for shopping done through GoodShop.com.

People using the sites can designate the charity of their choice using the portals. Among the local organizations that have signed on are the Augusta SPCA, the Staunton Public Library, the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and a number of local churches, including Oak Grove Baptist Church and Cornerstone Church of Augusta.