The Friendship Gift for Christmas
Christmas is a time when a Christmas friendship gift matters more than at any other time of year. It is the season when friends look forward to contact with the people they love the most and a time when even the most self serving characters enjoy a lightening of spirit. Christmas has the power to soften even the hardest disposition and makes children of us all as we gleefully unwrap gifts sent to us in loving friendship.
Some of us mourn for the days when Christmas was more about ‘doing stuff together’ than receiving expensive presents: snowball fights; family games; carol singing; hunting for pine cones for the children to paint. Somewhere along the line over recent years, the Christmas spirit disappeared in a commercial feeding frenzy, as ruthless profiteers over-produced the kind of gifts that are fashionable and ‘must have’- big on trend, low on meaning and costing plenty.
This Christmas, so many good friends are worried about their finances and are battling to survive in a struggling economy. This year, it is really not appropriate to spend bundles of cash on quirky, here-today-gone-tomorrow fashion gifts that say more about your bank account than your friendship. Even supposing you can still afford to ‘splash the cash’ this year, why embarrass your friends by giving them a Christmas friendship gift they cannot reciprocate?
This year, try giving a meaningful gift that can be kept forever; a gift that be touched to remind your friend you are still around and thinking of them. The Friendship Stone is a beautiful friendship gift, naturally tumbled with other stones, giving it a glossy and tactile surface. No two stones are alike; as unique as your fingerprint and an environmentally friendly and thoughtful gift choice anyone would be delighted to receive. It is versatile enough to wear as a necklace, carry in your pocket or purse or use as a desk stone.
The Friendship Stone is a Christmas friendship gift that provides tangible help for others: Ten per cent of profits generated through The Friendship Stone sales go to Project South Africa, to improve the lives of the villages from where the stones originate. Twenty per cent of net sales from The Friendship Stone website goes to the non-profit organization ‘Big Brothers Big Sisters’.
The Friendship Stone is big in the playground this year as a Christmas friendship gift for kids, in a friendship pack that includes two stones for friends to share or exchange and can also be ordered on a leather necklace to guarantee against loss for little kids who might mislay a loose stone.
At Christmas, the message of friendship is more important than at any other time of year but so many of us get it all wrong. Get it right this time and try showing your friends how much they mean to you by giving them a gift that symbolises your friendship and affection; a Friendship Stone to bring friends close together even when they are far apart.
Born in Florida, Cathy grew up in Columbus, Georgia. She graduated with a BA Honors in Journalism from the University of Texas, where the emphasis of her studies was in photojournalism. After studying commercial photography at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, Cathy moved abroad to Israel where she has been for the past 23 years. Prior to forming My Stone Company in 2005, Cathy specialized in food and portrait photography.
The Friendship Stone Friendship Gift links friends and promotes friendships everywhere, stone by stone.
