With only a few days until Christmas, now more than ever both businesses and individuals will be feeling the strain of the economic climate, despite recent estimates that Britain will spend around 6.7bn in the week before christmas. Whilst there will still be those that enjoy the annual excesses to the fullest extent, there are no shortage of those who have little or no money to provide their own children with a gift at christmas.
Members of the globally recognised Social News website www.reddit.com [1] have been known in the past to rally together in the name of a good cause.
This christmas what started as one act of good will has sprouted into a torrent of generosity, with one user starting a topic suggesting they would like to donate a Christmas gift to someone who has been less fortunate during in this difficult financial time .
Hour by hour more users are submitting requests to be paired up with users who know somebody in need, with many users providing a delivery address, and a link to the toy or item their child or family member would like on popular online retail site www.amazon.com [2] (www.amazon.co.uk [3]) , in order to make sure that no scamming for cash alone takes place. At this point the majority of the users are based in the US, despite many outside getting involved as more users arrive on the site.
Obviously there is a degree of trust involved in the procedure, but with many users having already recieved the gifts, the process has gained increased momentum with more and more donations offered.
The gift donations are being made internationally, with donors from Australia and across Europe also coming forward offering to buy gifts for their chosen recipient using the international sites, so they can be shipped from the recipients own country.
In a winter that has otherwise been filled with stories of financial crisis, it comes in stark contrast to see that to some, this is the season of good will after all.
Link: http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/epktk/i_have_6_more_hours_to_order_a_gift_on_amazon_to/ [4]