Christmas = Child’s Play!

I have relatively few specific Christmas “traditions”, with most patterns of annual yuletide activity being more general (i.e. “be with my family”) as opposed to precise. However, one of my favourite festive moments is picking out a gift for Child’s Play, the Penny Arcade inspired gamers charity that annually donates massive amounts of videogames (and other gifts) to various children’s hospitals around the world via Amazon.

As long as the DS continues to be awesome, it’s not actually that hard to pick out what I’m going to give, haha. The only tough choice is deciding on the accompanying game. This year I decided to go with Animal Crossing: Wild World. Also, in celebration of my upcoming departure (and because, for whatever reason, the Alberta Children’s Hospital still isn’t participating :P), I sent my gift to Texas Children’s in Houston. May it go before me as an electronic ambassador of Canadian goodwill!

I love Child’s Play in both concept and implementation, and I hope this year will smash the 2006 record – because unlike a high score, these numbers aren’t just digits, but lives – sick kids who need something to smile about because, for whatever reason, they’re stuck in a hospital bed at Christmastime. Each additional zero appended to the end of the financial total represents innocent joy multiplied by a factor of ten. Now that’s what I call creative accounting.

Of course there are plenty of other good charities to donate your hard-earned money towards, some that definitely address more obvious and possibly even more noble causes. But hey, I like Child’s Play, and if you have some extra cash and feel like brightening the day of some infirm children, maybe go check it out. By now it’s probably too late for the gifts to make it to their destination in time for Christmas (especially for Canada), but hey, these kids are still gonna be stuck in the hospital the week after Christmas too.

inside this night I know it’s not too late