Do a good deed for the holiday season

Christmas is that festive time of the year where having fun, exchanging presents, decorating and enjoying traditional meals is on everybody's minds, but it should also be a time of thinking about others and trying to raise spirits through selfless acts.

Take the holiday season as an opportunity to do a good deed if you don't have the time to do it during the year. Acts of kindness should be done from the heart and so that you feel rewarded and satisfied with yourself for making someone's life better or just by helping someone.

Usually a good deed is not about spending a great amount of time or money, it's about that gesture that is valuable for the other person.

Here, the act of giving has multiple meanings, so let's see a few ways of how you can sparkle with generosity !

Let someone ahead of you in line if they are in a rush or have fewer items to buy than you.

Say a prayer for someone or give someone a compliment.

Invite people over for Christmas dinner.

Give away magazines or books you don't need or read anymore – it's like passing on knowledge.

Hold the door for someone.

Help out or do something nice for a neighbour or your sibling.

Make soup for a friend recovering from surgery or an illness.

Leave a thank you note in surprising places for your mother, father or someone who has helped you out recently.

Call your grandparents to tell them that you love them or set the table when you make them a visit. You can also drive them wherever they need: to the supermarket or to the doctor's.

Offer a disabled person, a pregnant woman or an elderly person your seat in public transport.

If you have a gift card and you don't really need the items that you can use it for and if it is something you can let go easily, give it to someone dear to enjoy it. That person will appreciate you thinking about him or her.

Another thing you can do is rally your friends to donate unwanted toys, outgrown clothes, home appliances to charity or groceries at a food bank, a good deed done in a group would be more fun and would bring more benefits for society. Everyone knows the expression: The more, the merrier.

Donate your time and volunteer at a homeless shelter, children's hospital or nursing home. Or visit to sing carols and give out baskets of homemade treats. The time you spare helping out those less fortunate or in need will always be valued, there shouldn't be any doubt about that.

Nurture the idea of generosity within your own family. You can put strips of paper with good deeds written on them in a bag or a hat and let each member of the family take out a strip from it. After each of you accomplishes the deed, share the experience and see what you have learned from this and what you felt.

Try to be kind-hearted as many times as you can inspire your children to be the same.

Your child can start at school, so teach him how to help his teacher or schoolmates on different occasions, by sharpening a classmate's pencil, carrying his books when in need, offering to do homework together or picking up rubbish and throwing it away.

And there are many other things you can do. Even if it's not a grand gesture, a little one can be much more significant and could mean a lot to the person receiving it. Please leave a comment and share with us some of your ideas for being good and kind this Christmas, we would be honored to read more.