Christmas gift guide

As the festive season approaches we have an opportunity to approach gift-giving with a new perspective. Most of these ideas just call for your time, none of them require delivery, and all of them will make a real difference in someone’s life.

The Gift of Life

Donate between 15 November and 26 December, and on your way out of the donor centre, collect a special gift tag to dedicate your life-giving donation to one of your friends, colleagues or family. Donating blood as a gift is free, heartfelt, and meaningful. You can see the tags and download electronic versions on our Gift of Life page.

Volunteer your house

Wherever you are in Australia, your home can help people who need temporary accommodation should active bushfires threaten their safety. If you can offer a free room, a holiday house, or any form of emergency accommodation this summer, you can register your home at Airbnb Disaster Relief.

Take out the rubbish

Not just at home (though that’s a good start), but Clean Up Australia are running safe, socially-distanced activities all over the country to keep our beaches, cities, and landscapes clean this summer. Register at https://www.cleanup.org.au/, and give a Christmas gift to the whole country.

Decorate your house

You may have only met some of your neighbours for the first time this year as we all spent some quality time in our own streets, so now comes an opportunity to make a good impression by covering your house in a festive, twinkling homage to neighbourliness.

Get growing

While you’re on a bid to impress your neighbours, propagate some seedlings and make a front-fence ‘seed bar’, where people can collect their Christmas gifts in the form of seedlings wrapped in wet newspaper, or tiny shoots growing out of cut-up egg cartons. Spider plants, succulents and cacti should come along nicely in your discarded milk cartons and bottles, and you’ll probably become neighbourhood-famous for all the right reasons!

Get crafty

A simple and effective way to share the spirit of the season is to make cards to share with your local aged care facility, or healthcare providers. This year we’ve seen how appreciated these little gestures are, and if you know small children it’s an opportunity to spend some quality crafternoon time together.

Babysit 

To keep blood donors safe, we implemented some changes in our donor centres this year, like only allowing people who are donating can be in the centre. If you know someone who might need a child-minder while they donate blood, offering to look after their little ones is a generous gesture. It could also help to ensure we can keep blood supplies steady, even as school holidays commence and parents may find it tricky to get to their donations. 

Get social 

Every time someone shares one of our social media posts, a blood donor gets their wings! 
Okay, it might not be that clear-cut, but sharing the posts we put up on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn helps us reach even more people who might be eligible to donate blood. By giving us the gift of a wider audience, you’re helping to ensure we can continue to meet Australia’s ever-growing demand for new blood donors.

Learn to save lives 

It’s easier than you might think. Completing a First Aid course is a great way to feel a sense of accomplishment as we wind down the year. It’s one of those gifts that you hope you won’t need to use, but it’ll bring a lot of comfort to your friends and family if more people know what to do in an emergency situation. 
Our friends at Australian Red Cross run first aid and mental health training. They also have their own great list of ways to contribute to developing a nice healthy warm glow this season.