Chicken.

This is it, people. We’re less than a week from opening gifts. Be honest. How many do you still need to buy?

There are those people that are impossible to buy for, right? They won’t tell you what they want. They have everything they want. They don’t want anything.

Fine, you say. You got a chicken.

Well, really, some family that Compassion International works with got a chicken. I bought you a chicken … and then I gave it away ’cause I knew you wouldn’t really know what to do with a chicken.

Don’t worry, they probably won’t eat it. One chicken provides valuable fertilizer for gardens, and a steady supply of eggs. Some of those eggs will provide the most nutritious breakfasts that family has ever had. Some will be sold to help them buy other things they need. Some will be raised to produce even more eggs.

There really is a gift that keeps on giving.

A chicken.

For $16, you can cross an impossible name off your list, and give a family in a Compassion project a future.

Small price tag, really, for Hope.

AND, Compassion will even generate a card for you to give the person whose chicken you gave away. You can get an e-card, or print it at home (since you probably won’t have time to get it in the mail now). I’ll even help you personalize the card. Ready?

“Merry Christmas! Because you were too chicken to visit Santa, and tell him what you wanted for Christmas, you get a chicken. Balk.”

“Merry Christmas! Remember when you said you didn’t want anything for Christmas? I got you something you can’t actually have, so now we’re BOTH happy. Enjoy your not-chicken.”

“Merry Christmas! I saw this, and thought of you!”

If you’re not into chickens, you can also give cows and pigs. If livestock just doesn’t say, “Christmas” to you, give a tarp, a Bible, or garden seeds.

You can see Compassion’s Gift Catalogue here.

Or, if you still have people asking what you want for Christmas, throw them a curve ball and tell them you want chickens. (And then send them that link, ’cause you don’t really want chickens.)