This guest-post is brought to you by Rinnah.

Time really flies and as we step into the first few days of December, the Christmas season is almost upon us yet again. For those of us living in Malaysia, December also means the start of the Malaysia Year-End-Sale (YES). Thus for me, December is all about shopping and preparing for Christmas. There’s a lot to buy and many things to see - presents for all and sundry on my list, ornaments for the tree, materials for Christmas at church, goodies for Christmas meals and other teensy weensy details that make Christmas well, Christmas.

Image credit: Romantiques Christmas by yugoQ.

But that’s not all I do during December. There’s also holidays under the guise of clearing annual leave and doing charitable good deeds. After all, Christmas is known to be the season of goodwill and cheer and of giving. If you really stop to think about it, we are very blessed in Malaysia. Despite the increases in cost of living at least our economy is still doing well. We have roofs over our heads and decent jobs. We are in reasonable health and our country is rather peaceful (recent marches aside). With so much to be thankful for, can we just take a moment and stop to think about those less fortunate than ourselves?

Christmas is the easiest time to show that you care, because it’s made easy for you. Just flip through the pages of the newspaper and you’ll see this corporation or that company donating to places that need it the most - children’s wards in hospitals, orphanages, extending aid to special people. If you walk the shopping malls, you can find collection points, boxes set up for donations or Christmas trees where you can buy presents for the names on the tree. It’s not all that hard to take a few moments to dash off a cheque for a worthy cause, get some provisions for an old folks home or pick out a toy for an orphan or drop a few coins into a donation box. Even if you don’t want to spend something, there could be something useful in your home that others might need. Maybe a spare rice cooker or clothes that your children have outgrown.

As for me? I’ve already kicked things off this December with a concert on Sunday where all proceeds from ticket sales go to charity — the National Kidney Foundation to be exact *smile*

When it comes to charity, it’s not about what you can give. What really matters is the thought behind it that counts. So won’t you help someone out this Christmas?

Rinnah writes about all that strikes her fancy at It’s all about the spin…