Christmas cards are lovely. A small personalised message from someone you know, providing assurance that they appreciate you and think enough of you to select, purchase and deliver a card all the way to your home.

So everybody near and dear to us will be wondering where the hell our card has got to. Well, ok, we admit it, things have been too hectic and we’ve run out of time.

Well actually that’s not the only reason. When the Christmas TV advertising started in late October our hearts sank with the thought of 8 more weeks of jangly advertising and ‘this is not just Christmas, this is M&S Christmas’.

It feels like Christmas has become a commercialised, guilt-ridden, manic rush, to send cards and to buy presents that might somehow convey the importance of a friend or relative, and the consequent stress of ‘will they like it’, ‘will they already have it’, ‘is it enough?’, ‘have I missed anyone?’.

I can earn money with each load of water that my donkey carries into town. Without my donkey, I would have no work or income.
Adam Isa, Sudan

We opted out this year; Emma’s side of the family has decided to do away with presents altogether, choosing a family day out instead. The two of us are simply spending Christmas day together with some good food and some good films, appreciating a pause in the hectic schedules of PhD and full time work to actually spend some time together.

The good side of Christmas, the non-commercial side, is about giving and goodwill, and we buy into that in a big way, so we wanted to find a present we could get for all our friends and family, in lieu of cards and presents, that would be relevant and appropriately non-commercial.

So we decided to donate to charity, and we couldn’t help but be swayed by the option to buy a donkey. So that is what we’ve done through Oxfam.

Friends and family, you are now the proud co-owner of a little donkey.

Merry Christmas!