Am I beginning to sound like a broken record with my laments about doing more giving this holiday season? Sorry, it is just where my heart is at this Christmas.

Actually I think we do a pretty good job of giving as a family throughout the year, but it is often hard to involve our children it. A lot of the giving we do involves writing a check and they just aren’t a part of that.

Last year, we tackled the World Vision catalog as a family and my girls (Silas was a baby) took their task very seriously. Lily has been asking this year if we will be doing it again. It made a really big impression on her. I can’t wait to see what they pick out this year.

But I want to do more.

I know I have been doing a lot of sponsored type posts this month (tis the season) but I want you to know I have tried to be VERY selective about what I say yes to. I say yes when I already love the product or know I will love the product. And most importantly when it is something I want my readers to know about.

So when Razoo reached out to me about their innovative way to give back during the holidays I was intrigued. When they told me they could help encourage generosity with my kids I was sold.

At Razoo you can buy gift cards for Christmas. But these gift cards aren’t to be used to buy things for yourself. They are used to give back to your recipients favorite charity. And it is super easy to do.

Razoo provided me a few gift cards to use with my kids. We sat down and talked about how we felt like it was important to give back at Christmas and this year we were going to let them pick where they gave to.

Lily was very intentional when I asked her who she wanted to give to. She immediately said “someone who is helping girls go to school.” We found a wonderful charity providing education to young girls from the street in Ethiopia. Lily is a little too young to have a “cause” yet, but she was excited to give her money to a local charity that our family is already very involved in.

They both LOVED having an actual gift card that was all theirs to spend. You can send people a virtual cards or print it out and give them a physical copy. You can choose any amount. Buying a gift card is very simple with no registration required.

If you are raising money for a cause you can also use Razoo as a fundraising tool. Simply register your fundraiser and people can contribute in one easy spot.

Razoo takes a small 2.9% of the donations they collect. I think that is incredibly reasonable. You know when those fundraisers call you on the phone and ask you to give to the police or veterans or whoever? They usually take about 80% of the money for themselves. Razoo has actually provided information about how they stack up with other fundraising sites.

Overall I had a really great experience using Razoo and feel like it gave me a great option for gift giving in the future. I would love to have a birthday celebration that used Razoo to donate to a great cause instead of getting gifts. Or simply provide someone who is hard to buy for a chance to give to a charity that means a lot to them. Really there are a lot of great ways to use Razoo!!

Razoo provided me with gift cards for our children and ourselves, but all the money was donated to our favorite causes. Including The Mercy House founded by Kristen who is hosting Works For Me Wednesday.

The advent of deal sites has been awesome for my holiday shopping. All year long when a good deal would appear I would buy it. Ok so possibly TOO often when a good deal would appear. But the good news is I had a nice little stash of Christmas presents built up this year.

Normally I am not one of those people who shops all year long. Normally I am more of a order everything I want to buy the first week in December kind of person. But this year the gifts seem to be trickling in. Combine that with the fact that I kept discovering hiding places where I kept my stash from the year and I was overwhelmingly confused with what I had gotten for who and if it was all even.

Side note: My husband thinks I am insane because I try really hard to spend the same amount on each kid. I say he is an only child who doesn’t know anything about not scarring children with siblings for life. What say you?

So this year I got all nerdy and made out a spreadsheet for each person on my list. If I had the present in hand, it was written in their column in black. If I had ordered the present or had an idea for a present it went in italics. If the person is done being purchased for, their column turns red.

Dude. I am a nerd.

But either way it is keeping me so much more sane. I also may or may not have a list for stocking stuffers to keep those even as well. We need not discuss the complicated system I use to keep track of the Christmas cards I send and receive. It would scare you.

How to you keep track of your Christmas shopping? Are you done yet?

This post is linked up to Works For Me Wednesday at We Are That Family.