How Caring Can Be The BEST Shopping!

Music and the Holidays were inseparable long before we had the ability to record music. Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas’ remains the biggest-selling single ever, at over 50 million copies sold. Part of the Beatles’ marketing (and magic) was always having an album out just before Christmas, so Mom and Dad’s shopping was made easier. (The fact that some of us are on their tenth copy of those albums, thanks to remastering and endless new formats, is a separate topic.)

Music will always be a perfect gift, because of its universality, and also how incredibly individual it can be. One way of showing someone else that you truly ‘Got them’ was by giving them music that would really resonate with them. (If one felt exceptionally daring during the courting phase, a ‘mixtape’ or CD could be concocted.) A gift card was practically an admission of ‘I don’t have the energy to Really get to know ya, so I settled for this.’ Giving and caring, just like music, is just as personal. What matters to you is as good as a mirror into who you Really are. And conversely, it’s a profound window into the people you care about. So, what to do as far as gifting for the Holidays?

Back in 1984, Bob Geldof brought the two ideas together. While watching news coverage of the famine in Ethiopia, he and friend Midge Ure felt moved to compose ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ George Harrison had felt similarly inspired to do the same thing with his 1971 concert for Bangladesh’, but Geldof and team arguably upped the all-star quotient. And managed to gather all that talent in the same London recording studio (Not without a few complications, though. On the day of recording, he found everyone in ensemble ready to go...except Boy George, who he tracked down by phone in New York. “Oh, was it Today?’ was George’s groggy answer. One four-hour flight later, and Band-Aid was done, both recording and, the newest rage, in video.)

Other musicians felt inspired, most notably the American ‘We Are the World’, and Canada’s own “Tears Are Not Enough’. ‘Band-Aid’ was remarkable not just in its ambition, and the speed in getting the single released before the holidays. The spirit of the project itself seemed to

perform a bit of a communal ‘reset’ on the spirit of Christmas. Based on the eventual worldwide sales of over eleven million copies, it succeeded.

While 2022 may feel like it could provoke the Scrooge in most of us, some of the biggest holiday songs came in pretty dark times. “White Christmas’ went to Number One while Hitler was winning World War Two. John Lennon’s ‘Happy Xmas’ was released after a period of violent U.S. riots and with the Vietnam War still raging.

Since what we care about most is just as personal as a special song...why not give your special people the gift of them being able to give? There are an infinite number of charitable possibilities that could solve your gift-shopping headaches this season. And, yes, there are

even gift cards specifically designed for just that. (In this instance, just knowing that the recipient cares about Caring is the biggest part of the present.)

However, you celebrate the Holidays, it’s a time when we make a ritual out of thinking about each other, through the coldest days and the darkest nights of the year. Giving, in whatever form you choose, can be a most joyful way of disagreeing with the gloom. Link Charity has

been helping people help other people for over forty winters. Get in touch today to find the cause that speaks to you (and those you care about), just like a favourite song.

And a Merry Jingle, Eh?