It's Better To Give....

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Clever Girls Collective and SWAGG are sending a pair of movie fans to the Sundance Film Festival! Download the SWAGG app and then visit the Ultimate SWAGG Getaway Sweepstakes site to enter to win a trip for two to the Sundance Film Festival. Entry deadline is January 3, 2011, 11:59pm, PST.

It's better to give than to receive, especially when you give to someone who lights up when they receive. It's a pleasure to have the ability to make someone so happy, and usually when I give gifts, it's without any warning. I don't discuss "exchanging" with anyone, I just buy presents for whoever I want and let them be pleasantly surprised. This way they don't feel obligated to buy me anything.

My favorite gift giving experience was about seven years ago. Every year I visit the New York City Post Office in Manhattan. They came up with a great idea that has been in practice for years- all those Dear Santa letters from across the country are sent here, and we (the anonymous public) have the opportunity to answer the letter of a child. It's called "Operation Santa" and I've been participating for over ten years. It is a fabulous, fun experience. Some of the letters are heart-breaking (like the child who asked for heat, or the child who asked Santa for a job for his sad, unemployed mom). Some don't exactly, um, inspire me, like adults who write to "Operation Santa, New York, NY" asking for home renovations and pretending to believe in Santa. Then again, you never know, maybe some of those get answered by a wealthy benefactor.

I always look for letters addressed to Santa, North Pole. This way I know a child, somewhere, really thought he was writing to Santa, and their cute parents actually stamped and mailed the letter for them, not knowing that these letters (thousands upon thousands) actually make it into the hands of hundreds of good samaritans. My favorite experience with this, however, was the year I decided to "adopt" a class room. Often, classrooms of children in public schools have a writing project of writing Dear Santa letters, and I chose one- a class of about 30 underprivileged eight year old children in a Brooklyn public school. I decided to put aside about $200-300 (I was single) for this project of mine, and when I told my dad, brother, and others about it, they wanted to donate. By the end, I have almost $600 and was able to buy each child a gift of about $20, which allowed me to buy the best gift on their lists to Santa. I went on a shopping spree, with letters in hand, and spent a weekend wrapping all the gifts with gift tags "from Santa". My brother helped me bring the bags to their school, and when the principal found out why we were there, she was shocked and thrilled. She led us to the students' class, and for the next few hours, excited shrieks and laughter filled the room as the students realized their letters were answered and gifts they never thought they'd get were being passed to them. Names were called out, gifts presented, flurries of wrapping being torn, kids running around to show what they got and see what others got, and the general buzz in the air was a happy. The principal and teacher stood by beaming, and finally, at the end made speaches thanking us. I corrected them and said these gifts were from Santa, but the principal didn't really like that (she felt those that donated to my gift fund should be properly acknowledged and thanked) and after, the students made us fabulous thank you cards that were mailed to my home, with colored drawings of themselves playing with their gifts. It was a truly memorable experience.

Clever Girls Collective and SWAGG, the sponsors, are sending a lucky pair of movie fans to the Sundance Film Festival (the link is at the top of this post). The sweepstakes is offered exclusively through the Clever 1000, and it has a pretty great prize (a $4,000 value), including:
-2 night/3 day stay at Yarrow Hotel in Park City Utah (Jan 21 - Jan 23, 2011)
-Ground transportation to and from hotel to airport in Park City, Utah
-Dinner for two at Tao Lounge, including 2 nightclub passes (I LOVE Tao Lounge in Manhattan!)
-All access to The House of SWAGG Gifting Suite and to a SWAGG demo for a special "celebrity
guest" - (guest to be determined)
-2 tickets to a movie premiere on Saturday, January 22nd - (movie tbd as well)

so if you are interested and free during that time, why not enter and see if you win? Have a great holiday- here's hoping your gift giving experiences are as much fun :)

Learn more about the coolest new app that revolutionizes the whole shopping, gifting, and gift card-organizing experience and Download the SWAGG app to your iPhone or Droid. I was selected for this sponsorship by Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity.