Choose greener gifts by keeping three guidelines in mind: locally sourced, thoughtfully personal and smart wrapping.

A simple option is to find something grown or crafted in your area. Local wines, cheeses or seasonal arrangements are always a welcome gift. During the holiday season Canadians can take advantage of wreaths or arrangements made from local evergreens.

For a more personal gift, consider the recipient’s interests and hobbies. A great resource is the World Vision Gift Catalogue (online at www.worldvision.ca/gifts). Options include a grove of fruit trees on behalf of an avid gardener, school supplies on behalf of a reader or chickens to provide a family with eggs in the name of a wonderful cook. Gifts are locally sourced and go to help children and families around the world.

Reduce wrapping, or go for recycled or reusable options. Using fabric or a colourful cloth shopping bag is not only an environmentally sound option, but provides a ‘wow factor’.

Besides the multitude of debatable home remedies suggested by well-meaning friends, a few reliable recommendations deserve our attention.

An ounce of prevention
Do what you can to avoid getting sick in the first place. Wash your hands. Practice healthy living – eight hours of sleep, lots of fruit and vegetables, regular exercise and loving relationships. Avoid close contact with people who are sick. Take advantage of the seasonal flu vaccine.

A pound of cure
If you catch it, don’t share it. Stay home. Cough or sneeze into a tissue or your sleeve. Drink plenty of liquids. Get plenty of sleep. Some over-the-counter drugs, including painkillers and syrups, will help to relieve symptoms and make sleeping easier.

For related infections including ear, throat, bronchi and sinus, a visit to the doctor is warranted and will likely result in a prescription for antibiotics. Make sure to take the full course you are prescribed.

Feeling better
What could be worse than being sick? Being sick without any chance of treatment.

Through its Gift Catalogue, World Vision offers the possibility of providing vaccines, antibiotics and medicine for children around to help others feel better, too.

As Canadians brace to face the flu season, doing some good for a person who really needs it might be just the cure we need.

Choose greener gifts by keeping three guidelines in mind: locally sourced, thoughtfully personal and smart wrapping.

A nutritious diet including vitamin and mineral supplements promotes the health and well-being of the expectant mother, and is a determining factor in the future of her child. Physical growth, motor and brain development are all dependent on proper nutrition. Although good nutrition is something we make take for granted here in Canada, millions of women around the world are not so fortunate.

In Canada, most women see their doctors at least four times during their pregnancy. In addition almost all Canadian mothers have skilled health practitioners, such as doctors or midwives, present at birth. In comparison in Afghanistan, only 36% of women access one pre-natal check up and only 14% have health practitioners attend their birth.

After a difficult pregnancy in 2010, Sara Austin and her husband of Woodbridge, Ontario welcomed their son Felix. “Because of high risk complications, we had the support of many maternal health specialists -- midwives, obstetricians, pediatricians, lactation consultants, and various others,” explains Austin. “I can't express how grateful we felt to have access to health care.”

A great way to support a new mother, or to thank a healthcare worker who attended a birth, is to support an expectant mom living in poverty through the World Vision Gift Catalogue (www.worldvision.ca/gifts). Says Austin, “To show our gratitude, we gave our midwives the gift of Pre- / Post-Natal Care for a Mother and Child. They were so touched that their work was honoured this way, it brought them to tears.”

Avoid crowds – Start holiday shopping early to avoid the Christmas rush. This means either shopping earlier in the season or getting to stores when they open and are the least crowded. Before visiting a holiday attraction, call ahead to find out when they experience their ‘slow’ periods.

Online shopping – No lineups and convenient hours make the internet a favourite for busy parents. Most major stores have online sites and so do many smaller stores and brands. A popular option are charitable gifts that allow you to offer tangible help to somebody in need, in honour of somebody on your Christmas list. The World Vision Gift Catalogue has many great options (see WorldVision.ca/gifts) including olive trees and soccer balls.

Shop organized – Time spent at home preparing to shop means much less time in store. Make and keep a list for Christmas shopping. Do research to take advantage of sales. Use coupons and get discounts. Preparation will help reduce December shopping stress.

Have a family calendar – Start tracking your holiday schedule with a calendar in a central place. If it looks like the timing will be too tight, don’t feel bad about politely declining an invitation.

Parents should take a look at how they are spending money and time this holiday season. If their list is more about expensive gifts, party clothes and concerts. Think about deliberately cutting something back.

Make time for the pleasures of family this Christmas: skating on an outdoor rink, baking and decorating Christmas cookies, driving around town to look at Christmas decorations, or, calling a snow day and staying home for a movie marathon. This creates traditions that children will remember.

Helping somebody less fortunate is an important reality check for the whole family. One Canadian family uses the World Vision Gift Catalogue (worldvision.ca/gifts) to help a child in need. “We give each of our children some money to choose a gift from the catalogue,” says Lucie, of Montreal. “They not only practice an act of kindness, but they learn about how other children live. It helps them appreciate everything they’ve got.”

Great holiday ideas are habit-forming. So why just save them for the holidays? Going easy on the expenses, investing in fun family time, and remembering people who are less fortunate are lifestyle choices.

As the days get shorter and the air gets cooler, we naturally move our lives indoors. We turn on the lights. We turn on the heat. We feel comfortable and we feel safe.

Things are different for Aamir, 15. Safety is a relatively new concept for him. Aamir has been living on the streets around Pir Wadhai, Pakistan’s largest open-air bus terminal, since he was 7 years-old, living off potatoes and bread. He lives and works in a scrapyard, scrounging through the garbage heaps for recyclable material. He has been molested, beaten and abused.

Warmth and light have recently come into Aamir’s life. He has begun frequenting the Manzil Centre, a drop-in centre supported by World Vision that offers counseling, education and a safe place to hang out. Aamir has signed up for a course in phone repair. He has big plans for his life, and now he has support to realize his dreams.

Not everybody is so fortunate. Consider that 100 million children live in the streets around the world; some 1.2 million children are trafficked every year for labour and sexual exploitation; in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% of all children work in dangerous jobs and hundreds of thousands of children are serving in armed conflict, often forced to commit atrocities against their own family or neighbours
We can all do something for a child like Aamir. Aid agencies such as World Vision work to protect vulnerable children, and rehabilitate those who have fallen prey to abuse. So as we hunker down in our comfortable homes, Canadians can offer the gift of security to a street kid, a child soldier, or a victim of child trafficking through the World Vision gift catalogue, online at worldvision.ca/gifts.

Be Thankful - Children want to learn the meaning of thanksgiving. Parents can set the example by sharing with their family a list of things they are thankful for.

Give a meaningful gift – Families are giving back both locally and globally. Thanksgiving is an important time for local food banks, and international charities like World Vision, offer great options for international giving, such as providing another family with a goat, chickens or fruit trees (WorldVision.ca/gifts).

Get kids involved – Children appreciate being an active part of the festivities. They will be proud to see a Thanksgiving inspired craft they made, like a centerpiece or name cards, on the dinner table.

Volunteer time - Many families make it a point to get involved in the community around Thanksgiving. There are many ways to help out in the community, for example families can visit a local homeless shelter, stop by a retirement home, donate food to a local food bank, or serve up a hot meal at a soup kitchen.

Many hands make light work in the garden. Children enjoy lending a hand with fun seasonal chores like raking leaves, picking seasonal vegetables or wrapping up plants for the winter.

Get ready for winter. Now is the time for children to choose a new snowsuit, gloves, boots, scarves and mittens. The transition to winter clothes can be hard on young children. It is important for them to practice putting on and taking off their new clothes. An excellent way to get them excited about the importance of staying warm, and teach them about helping others around the world, is purchasing warm winter Clothing for Children through the World Vision Gift Catalogue (worldvision.ca/gifts).

Longer nights equal great family time. Now that it’s getting darker earlier, some families find creating ‘family nights’ once a week as a great way to celebrate the seasonal change. Have children pick a menu they love in advance, and then the family chooses a board game to play, or a movie to watch together.

“The problem isn’t fighting on the ice,” he insists. “The problem is stress. A lot of people, not just hockey players, have trouble handling pressure.”

In the autumn work places often see an increase in stress levels, with the change of seasons and the renewed pressure of juggling work and personal life. And although Laraque’s solution is only one piece of a complex puzzle, it is a timely example. “For me, the best way to deal with stress is to think of others,” says Laraque. “My charity work, like helping rebuild a children’s hospital in Haiti with World Vision, that’s what keeps me healthy.”

World Vision offers many opportunities for average Canadians to let off some steam by “paying it forward.” These include contributing to Laraque’s Hockey for Haiti project, making a donation to help save lives in the Horn of Africa, or offering a gift of school supplies, a farm animal or a safe haven to children in the developing world through the World Vision Gift Catalogue. Visit worldvision.ca for details.