Style Magazine December 2020

GIVING BACK
31 WAYS
TO SPREAD
HOLIDAY CHEER
BY TARA MENDANHA
you’re at it, how about turning your car into
a red-nosed reindeer this year?
5 Channel Santa and donate to a toy
drive. The Folsom Toy Drive is
accepting donations until December 4
(folsomtoydrive.com); alternatively, bring a
new, unwrapped toy to Placer Wine Trail’s
Holidays in the Hills event on December 5
and 6 (placerwine.com/plan-your-visit/
events/holidays-in-the-hills)—where, in
addition to benefitting Toys for Tots, you’ll
receive discounts on wine, including 10% off
your first bottle at each winery.
Let’s end 2020 on a high note, shall we? We’ve got 31 things—that’s
right, one for each day of December—to help spread some muchneeded
holiday cheer. Read, do, repeat!
2
1 Bake cookies (for 5
simple and scrumptious
recipes, turn to page 78)
and gift them to family,
friends, or neighbors. If
you’re not adept at baking,
send them a cookiedecorating
kit from Frank
Vilt’s Cakes (frankviltscakes.
com), instead.
Carry spare change when you go out
in case you bump into the Salvation
Army or someone down on their luck.
3 Corral a bunch of your friends and
family and go caroling in your
neighborhood. We could all use a song or
two.
4 Decorate the inside
and outside of your
home. Check out this
month’s holiday gift
guide (page 51) for some
décor ideas. And while
Holidays in the Hills
6 Volunteer at a homeless shelter
during the coldest and possibly most
difficult time of year to be without a home.
Hart of Folsom (hartoffolsom.org) assists the
homeless during winter months, as does
The Gathering Inn (thegatheringinn.com) in
Roseville, and Only Kindness (onlykindness.
net) in Placerville.
7 Show some appreciation for your
delivery person, teacher, mail carrier,
garbage collector, gardener, or house cleaner
with gift cards to local restaurants,
stationery, hand sanitizer, warm gloves,
holiday sweets, etc.
8 Donate to a food bank. We’ve
profiled many great organizations in
STYLE. Check out stylemg.com for more on
what they do. A simple Google search in
your area should also point you in the right
direction.
9 Greet or compliment a stranger. A
simple “Happy Holidays” or “Merry
Christmas” could make someone’s day. As
could: “I love your face mask!”
10 Phone your parents, grandparents,
aunts, uncles, or long-lost friends that
you haven’t spoken to in a while. And no,
texting doesn’t count.
11 Alternatively, you could snail mail
them holiday cards (with a personal
note) or handwritten letters. Once you’ve
done that, venture out and sign up for a pen
pal at PenPal World (penpalworld.com) or
Snail Mail Penpals (snailmailpenpals.net).
12 Perform random acts of kindness:
put away someone’s shopping cart, hold
the door for someone, pay for the person
Bake photo by Dante Fontana. Decorate photo courtesy of Pottery World. Holidays in the Hills photo by Heirloom Photography by Anne Doupnik.
22 stylemg.com | DECEMBER 2020 | /stylemg /stylemediagroup /stylemediagroup /stylemags