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It’s the most wonderful time of the year… for some. The holiday season brings excitement, awkward conversations, family traditions, alienating celebrations, joy, and stressful gift-giving, all in just a few weeks’ time. A few weeks ago, contributing writer Femina Ajayi-Hackworth expanded on a few ways to maintain an inclusive workplace and avoid those challenges. But the one thing that shouldn’t be frustrating is your generosity. As you’re looking for something special for your family, friends, or co-workers, I want to remind you to #LiveInclusively. Think about gifts that can create space for empathy, hope, and awareness in their journey or someone else’s. I’ve gathered a quick gift guide for living (and giving) inclusively: 

As you’re looking for something special for your family, friends, or co-workers, I want to remind you to #LiveInclusively. Think about gifts that can create space for empathy, hope, and awareness in their journey or someone else’s. Share on X

Books 

  • Books can be the most rewarding gifts for both you and the recipient because they take you on a journey, whether that’s through a story or through a lesson in your own life. Mary-Frances Winters guides you through the steps of having Bold, Inclusive Conversations® in We Can’t Talk About That At Work! and offers tips for bringing these skills to the workplace and your personal life. If the person is more interested in developing along their personal inclusion journey, she also has Inclusion Starts With I, a book of quotes from diverse voices like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Seneca. 
  • Updated 12/8/21 to add: Inclusive Conversations: Fostering Equity, Empathy, and Belonging Across Differences takes you even deeper into strategies for achieving equity, empathy, and belonging in cross-racial discussions. Black Fatigue: How Racism Erodes the Mind, Body, and Spirit is a great resources if you want to understand the burden of carrying conversations about race on Black people and to learn the foundation from which we can begin to imagine a better world, together. If you are BIPOC, you might want to gift Black Fatigue to your white associates to lessen the emotional labor on you.

Self-care 

  • With New Year’s resolutions around the corner, many of your friends and family will be committing to self-care. Joining them in a new hobby, checking in on them more regularly, or offering simple gifts to remind them to take time for themselves is the perfect way to help them start their new commitment! One of those gifts could be a journal for writing, drawing, or anything else they need. Journals made by The Downtown Women’s Center help to provide women experiencing homelessness and formerly homeless women with opportunities to gain job experience while they work in a supportive and empowering environment.

Home 

  • To help spruce up your friend’s home, or even give them a new hobby for their self-care journey, Urban Leaf sells a Self-Watering Windowsill Herb Garden. The kits are manufactured and assembled in conjunction with Mid Hudson Works, a nonprofit organization providing employment opportunities for people with disabilities.  
  • Updated 12/8/21 to add: Live Inclusively® is a lifestyle brand by The Winters Group, including t-shirts, enamel pins, digital prints, drinkware, and more. A portion of each purchase goes toward Live Inclusively® Actualized, The Winters Group’s social responsibility arm with a mission to break down systemic barriers impacting BIPOC communities. With every purchase, YOU are making a difference! 

Apparel and Accessories 

  • Sometimes just refreshing someone’s wardrobe and gifting a cute shirt is the best way to go! Live Inclusively® offers a variety of shirts and enamel pins with messages that inspire kindness, spread inclusion, promote unity, and celebrate differences. 
  • For the mother in your life, this lightweight tote is the ideal gift; plus the company that makes it, FEED, donates 10 school meals to malnourished children in need with each purchase.  
  • To add a little sparkle for the New Year, Brett Lauren offers jewelry assembled by women from local residential homeless shelters receiving paid work and mentorship through this program. 

Children 

  • Don’t forget about the kids in your life! Whether it’s your child, or the child of a family member, or friend, these gifts are sure to impress the little one. Bedtime in a Box offers a creative yet simple solution for a bedtime routine. Each box contains five age-appropriate books; bath wash, a towel, and bath toys; a toothbrush and toothpaste; pajamas; a stuffed animal; an alarm clock; a Teach My Learning Kit; and a kid-friendly routine log. You can choose from the infant, toddler, preschool, or kindergarten box. A portion of the proceeds from your purchase will be used to provide Boxes to families in need.  

Donate in Their Name 

  • If you can’t think of anything this person in your life might want or if they don’t want material items, consider donating to a charity in their name. There are organizations for everyone’s interests – the environment, women’s rights, youth, refugees, etc. Whatever the cause might be, the holidays are a great time to show support and generosity. If you are looking for a new organization to support, check out the grant recipients from the Live Inclusively® Actualized program. All the recipients are organizations that work to break down systemic barriers for marginalized women and youth, and they are creating the kind of community we believe in. 

Although the holiday season can be stressful, I hope this guide makes your generous gift-giving a little bit easier, a lot more rewarding, and hopefully, forever more inclusive. 

Although the holiday season can be stressful, I hope this guide makes your generous gift-giving a little bit easier, a lot more rewarding, and hopefully, forever more inclusive. Share on X