Give gifts that are in keeping with the meaning of the celebration. It would be hard to imagine the magi bringing toy spears and daggers to the baby Jesus. Other gifts can also bring the wrong message. Many videos, magazines and compact discs denigrate women, minorities and poor people. Consider the messages conveyed by the popular sports magazines that have special issues devoted to women in bathing suits.
Many products come from factories that use child or even slave labor.
Others come from factories that are heavy polluters of the air, water and soil. Still others are from factories that use animals to test their products. Let your gift-giving foster the peaceable kingdom proclaimed by the birth of Christ. Last, but not least, give gifts to the one whose birth we celebrate. Jesus tells us that in order to give to him we must find him in the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the naked, the imprisoned.