Traditionally Christmas is the time where people come together. For most it’s about spending time with family and loved ones, giving & receiving presents and enjoying delicious food and drink. Needless to say, most of us will be overindulging at some point.

If you want to do some good this year, we’ve looked at ways you can help those who are less fortunate. By offering your time, donating money, or buying a present that contributes to charity, you can make a difference and spread the Christmas cheer.

5 Ethical Gifts under £25

You could treat your loved ones this Christmas to gifts that give back to a worthy cause. We’ve picked out 5 of our favourites, made by companies who help support important causes around the globe.

Stand 4 Socks

Bamboo Socks

£11.99

Buy 1 Pair = Give 1 Pair to a Homeless Person

Stand 4 Socks makes a positive impact on 12 global causes, from clearing landmines in Laos, to providing education in Afghanistan. Each pair of Stand4 socks has a logo imprinted to signify the cause they represent.

Help Refugees – Choose Love

Choose Love T-Shirt

£19

Help Refugees is a young grassroots collective that’s helping to aid the European refugee crisis. They’ve teamed up with British designer Katharine Hamnett to create this Choose Love t-shirt, helping to raise funds and awareness for people caught up in the crisis.

The Soap Co

Soap Dish Duo
Wild Nettle & Sage

£23

The Soap Co. creates products ‘which are good and do good’, employing people who are visually impaired, have disabilities or are otherwise disadvantaged, to make their eco-friendly luxury products.

Neal’s Yard

Bee Lovely Body Lotion

£21.50

Neal’s Yard supports organic farming, sustainable wild harvesting and fair trade programs. Their pioneering Bee Lovely campaign has raised over £80k for bee-friendly causes since its launch in 2011.

Elephant Branded

EB iPad Case

£20

Elephant Branded supports education in Africa and Asia. The products are hand crafted from recycled materials (such as cement bags) by local villagers, who are paid fairly. They learn valuable skills enabling them to have a sustainable, effective way to escape poverty. For every item bought, a notebook is delivered to a child in Africa or Asia.

Help the homeless

Surprisingly, homelessness affects 1 in every 175^th person in the UK. How can we help make Christmas more bearable for those spending it without a home?

Source: Stand4Socks

Centre Point

Centre Point help to ‘give young homeless people a future’. This Christmas, they are providing hot Christmas dinners, beds, Christmas jumpers, health care checks, toiletries and much more.

What can you do?

You can select from a range of these gifts (from £5 to £1,500) to brighten someone’s Christmas this year.

Buy a Gift for a young homeless person

Help Loneliness in Elderly People

Loneliness is a major issue amongst people in later life. In the UK, 370,000 over 75s feel lonely every day of the year and as many as 200,000 elderly people say they haven’t spoken with a friend or family member for a month.

Sources: Age UK and Caroline Gardner

AgeUK & Caroline Gardner

Age UK Westminster has teamed up with card and stationery brand Caroline Gardner to create the ‘Give to Give’ campaign. Reach out to an older person in need of some love.

What can you do?

Simply write a thoughtful note on their website and a personalised card will be delivered to someone in need, in time for Christmas.

Give a message and they will give a card!

Help Refugees

The European refugee crisis is an on going humanitarian disaster. Since 2015, hundreds of thousands of refugees have been forced to migrate to Europe, mostly without food or shelter, but there are some amazing organisations working to provide for their basic needs.

Help Refugees – Choose Love

Help Refugees is a young grassroots collective that’s helping to aid the European refugee crisis. Their latest campaign aims to ‘Choose Love this Christmas and help those in need’.

Part of the campaign is a pop-up shop in London and an online shop for people to buy real products for refugees. The items on sale include emergency blankets, children’s shoes, warm socks, mobile phone credit and more. Prices range from £4.99 to £499 – to ‘buy the store’.

Visit the Choose Love Christmas Pop-up Shop

18 Broadwick St
Soho, London
W1F 8HS

Buy real products for refugees

For more ethical gift ideas, check out our suggestions from last Christmas:

Gifts that Give Back!