Kindness is Cool
Print by Ohverlee
In a year that has been super unkind to many of us - kindness is truly king. Even this year’s John Lewis Christmas campaign - usually an offering to the gods of capitalism (albeit one that makes me sobbb, I’m looking at you Monty the Penguin 👀), centres around kindness.
From tiny random gestures, to making your everyday purchases go further and Christmas shopping with purpose. You have more power than you know. Most of us are having a tough time at the moment for one reason or another, so it’s more important than ever to take care of each other and reach out so nobody feels alone. Because none of us ever are.
Brands like Blurt Foundation and Minus Cloud 9 (which support mental health charity MIND with every purchase) are doing so much to keep people talking about mental health. My friend Amy of Share Kindness Loudly is on a mission to spread the importance of being kind to one another and writer Matt Haig speaks openly and refreshingly about his mental health journey.
Here are some of the kindest things I could think of (researched in 15 minute increments because nice things on the internet kept making me cry)!… xoxo
Shop Local! Shop Small!
Just about the best, kindest thing you can do to keep all of our creative entrepreneurial friends in business. Even if you can’t financially support businesses you admire, just sharing their work on your socials can make all the difference (their next customer might be someone you know). In a year like this one, we’ve all got to look out for each other, and that means thinking about the little guys more than ever.
Bookshop.org is a marketplace supporting independent book shops - it’s amazing and I love it. If you absolutely must shop with Amazon (Jeff doth not need thy monies), did you know that if you use https://smile.amazon.co.uk Amazon automatically donates 0.5% of your purchases to a charity of your choice! Mine is Refuweegee. Products cost exactly the same and the site is identical (with Prime delivery). Just by replacing the www. with smile. you can make your purchases from “the dee-vil’s marketplace” a little less dire.
The Big Issue put together an annual 100 change makers list - of socially conscious businesses and the most inspirational people to follow (the 2019 list was 👍🏻 too).
Radical Giving stocks products from socially conscious brands (j’adore) and Social Stories Club put together gift hampers with a unique story of social impact. Founded in a lockdown pivot, Keep Glasgow Thriving and Keep Edinburgh Thriving make gift boxes filled with products from local businesses. Yay for local businesses!
*I have a mental checklist of small business faves that would keep you here with me until deep into 2021, DM meh friends!
Kind Gifts
The littlest cross section of some of my favourites..
Make your Christmas purchases Kinder
Advent of Change have created an advent calendar of dreams that gives to charity - each door represents a £1 donation (there’s also a children’s version). They have a beautiful advent candle, which burns down to reveal hidden numbers which relate to a charity each day. Their crackers are also gorgeous - each contains a slip about the charity your specific cracker has helped.
Other charity crackers include the Shelter, Cancer Research and The RSPB boxes. M&S have created “the world’s funniest crackers” in support of amazing charity Together for Short Lives (with jokes contributed by actual real life comedians of renown, not just witty Barry in the cracker factory).
Ways to Make this Christmas a Little Easier For Some People
There are so many things you can do right now to help important causes from a distance. You could make a donation in someone’s name, or choose a really special charity gift.
The Woodland Trust have lots of lovely gift ideas that support our furry friends 🦊🐿🦔 and IMPACT Foundation fund life-changing operations.
Their Gift Tokens (including the gift of sight, medical kits for schools and care packages for mamas and babies) are suchhh a meaningful gift, and come really beautifully packaged for something to open on Christmas Morning.
KEeping People Cosy ❄️
Most of us have old coats at home, which could be put to amazing use this winter. Big Issue have a good list of ways to get your unworn layers to cold and needy people.
Hands On London’s Wrap Up London campaign collects warm coat across the city. The No Evictions Network in Glasgow (supporting people in asylum accommodation against evictions) have launched an urgent Winter Appeal for warm clothing in the city. The Give a Kid a Coat appeal in Fife is also running a drive.
Choose Love is the world’s first shop where you can buy real gifts for refugees. Send warm clothing, tents, sleeping bags directly to those most in need. Coats4Calais is another incredible campaign to get warm coats to people living in seriously dire conditions (in modern day France😬). If you don’t have a coat to give, you can buy one directly from them to be donated.
Charities To Help This Christmas
Here’s a (by no means exhaustive!!) list of some incredible causes you can help right now…
The Homeless & Most Vulnerable…
Centre Point are supporting up to 23,000 homeless young people this Christmas. One of the best ways to help is by becoming a Room Sponsor to give someone a safe warm room to live in for a year. It works out at the cost of a subscription like Netflix each month and could change a person’s whole entire life.
Crisis At Christmas have set up a Wishlist of items that would be super appreciated (there is a different list for each major city - here is Edinburgh).
December is also the busiest month for foodbanks, with almost 50% more referrals than throughout the year. Fare Share and The Trussell Trust both support a network of foodbanks providing emergency meals and support to people locked in poverty. These should not even be a thing but we are where we are (trapped in a novel sans fin by Dickens methinks).
Festival of Kindness
Social Bite are a Scottish charity on a mission to end homelessness (yep - end it). This Christmas Eve and Day they’re opening their venues to provide a hot meal (and lovely company) to all who need it. They’re also distributing thousands of food packs, Christmas gifts and essentials across the Uk through charity partners. They’re also putting giant Trees of Kindness in Edinburgh & Glasgow! Yes - trees of kindness! 😭
Refuweegee
An organisation I love so much, and have volunteered with - Refuweegee help welcome people to Glasgow and Scotland in true weegie style.
They regularly update the list of donations they need the most (and things they can’t accept). They need so much support year-round to help get essentials to the most vulnerable recently arrived refugees and asylum seekers.
I’ve seen first hand how much their work helps people (like families living in one small room, young people without a phone to let their mama know they’re safe or mamas with tiny babies and no pram).
Help Vulnerable Kiddos…
The Royal National Institute of Blind People are running an amazing appeal to raise money to help a child with sight loss like Kiera receive a letter from Santa in braille (or other accessible format). I’m not crying, you’re crying…! They also provide 32,000 free talking books a year to blind children and help to transcribe sheet music.
You could buy a gift for a woman or child escaping domestic abuse this Christmas through Refuge. Often women and their little ones have fled domestic abuse with nothing but the clothes they’re wearing.
The Make-a-Wish-Foundation creates dreammm scenarios for children suffering from the very worst illnesses. £10 could pay for a child to receive a gift from Santa in hospital.
GOSH Stocking Appeal
Help Great Ormond Street Hospital give lovely stockings to children whose treatment needs to continue over the festive season. Support from the public can help bring Christmas to the hospital and make it feel like a home from home for poorly children.
The BookTrust
The Book Trust Christmas Appeal sends book parcels to children who are vulnerable or in care. With the aim of reaching more than 14,000 children, for some recipients, the gift will be the only book they own.
Be Someone’s Secret Santa
Be a Secret Santa for Action for Children to help the children and young people facing Christmas without a hot meal, a present or a safe place to sleep.
The Kids Out charity is running a Christmas present campaign for survivors of domestic abuse via an online shop this year. The Children’s Society have also launched an online shop of Hope to choose specific presents for vulnerable children and young people. You could also help Little Village find the perfect gift for 1,000 children in London this year.
Kind Acts Beyond Christmas:
Age Uk have put together a sweet list of small acts of kindness, with nice ideas of ways to help others. Here are some kind acts that can make a big difference all year round to a range of causes..
Little Village
Little Village is like a foodbank, but for clothes, toys and equipment for babies and children up to the age of 5, to help alleviate material poverty in London. Vital things like nappies can be ordered via their Amazon wishlist or you can make a financial donation where they can buy items on your behalf.
Bloody Good Period
Bloody Good Period give period products to those who can’t afford them, and provide menstrual education to those less likely to access it. And help everybody talk about periods.
Beauty Banks
Beauty Banks believe that being clean is a basic human right, not a luxury and not a privilege. The organisation supports those living in poverty in the UK - those who can't afford to be clean - with personal care and hygiene essentials.
Women’s Aid
Women’s Aid is the national charity working to end domestic abuse against women and children. During lockdown Women’s Aid saw a humungous increase in users visiting their Live Chat page for vital support. There are thousands of survivors relying on the charity while their homes are not safe places to be.
Age Uk
Age UK: The coronavirus pandemic has changed life for everyone, but some older people are among the hardest hit. You can sign up for telephone befriending - a weekly call with someone lonely or vulnerable, that can make all the difference to their quality of life.
Macmillan Cancer
When my granny was very poorly towards the end of her life, the Macmillan Cancer nurses came and did absolutely everything to make her home comfortable suitable for her medical care. These amazing people are super humans, so anything you can do to support them will go very far.
Close to home for me too, the Beatson Cancer Charity works real wonders for people in Glasgow, and Maggie’s Centres are some of the kindest places on earth.
Above all friends, be kind to one another. xoxo
If my words, ideas & tips have been useful and you would like to, you can buy me a coffee via Ko-Fi (a fantastic, secure platform to help you support writers and artists online). Thankyou in advance lovely human. xoxo