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Step 1
Pay a visit to a nursing home. Holidays, Christmas especially, can be a lonely time for elderly nursing home residents. Get together a group of friends and contact a local nursing home to arrange a day to spend an afternoon or evening with the residents. Bring a deck of cards, some board games or old movies and snacks. Have a great time while brightening up someone else's day.
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Step 2
Volunteer at a food bank or homeless shelter. There are plenty of people who have to rely on others for the holiday meal that most of us take for granted. Choose to be one of the fine people spreading holiday cheer to the less fortunate this Christmas season. You don't have to dedicate your entire Christmas vacation to working at a food bank or homeless shelter; the people who run those fine institutions will appreciate you volunteering just a few hours of your time.
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Step 3
Collect donations of toiletries, clothes and small toys for a battered women's shelter. Sadly, Christmas is a very busy time for battered women's shelters, and there are usually a good number of kids who spend their Christmas morning at a shelter instead of at home. Help the shelters have something for them to open by making donations of toys, books, games and clothes for kids before Christmas.
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Step 4
Provide Christmas presents for a local needy child. Many retail stores like Walmart and Kmart provide shoppers with the opportunity to choose a needy child from their Christmas tree. Each needy child is represented by an ornament that includes the age and sex of the child as well as a short list of what they would like for Christmas.
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Step 5
Go Christmas caroling. If you are involved in a church or social institution, it is easy to get together a group of people and Christmas carol at the houses of elderly church members or shut-ins. Performances don't need to be professional, because Christmas caroling is definitely in the category of "It's the thought that counts."
