This season is a feel-good season. Families will soon come together for a Thanksgiving meal, then the lights will start to twinkle, and before you know it the smell of Christmas is in the air… Plus it is sweater weather (and everyone knows sweater weather is better weather).
People are statistically more generous this time of year. (Which is why food banks tend to be full around the holidays and empty mid-summer.)
Here are 70 ideas for random acts of kindness to perform this season.
Also, if you are working through The Ultimate Autumn Bucket List, this will help you check #4 – “Do a Random Act of Kindness” off the list.
“Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.”
Princess Diana
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
Plato
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Maya Angelou
KINDNESS IN ACTION
- Ask a senior citizen about their life
- Share your umbrella
- Buy Christmas gifts for a needy family
- Send cards to sick children
- Bake something for someone
- Use a blogger’s affiliate links
- Write letters to military members
- Call your grandparents
- Sign up to be an organ donor
- Thank someone for the difference they have made
- Mow the lawn for your neighbor
- Donate books you’ve read
- Offer to take someone’s picture
- Give a bag of groceries to your local food pantry
- Do a chore your spouse or sibling hates
- Buy a meal for a service member or first responder
- Leave a positive review for an employee or business
- Leave a note or a dollar in a library book
- Write a thank you note, or make cookies for your mailman/woman
- Hold the door for someone
- Shop locally/shop small
- Chat with the shy person at the party
- Give your favorite book to a friend
- Play the piano at a nursing home
- Donate to an animal shelter
- Plant a tree
- Give up your seat for someone
- Donate to Locks of Love
- Write a list of things you adore about someone – and give them the list
- Help someone who has a flat tire
- Brag on an employee to their boss/manager
- Compliment a stranger
- Helps someone out at the grocery store who is short on cash
- Put an extra quarter in at the laundromat, vending machine, or parking meter
- Pick up and return something someone dropped
- Let someone cut in front of you in the checkout line
- Leave a big tip for your waiter/waitress
- Put your shopping cart back in the cart bay
- Pay for someone behind you at the toll booth, drive-thru, or movie theater
- Give someone else the last cookie or slice of pizza
- Pick up litter when you see it
- Participate in a 5k that supports a cause you care about
- Leave notes of encouragement on people’s windshields
- Prepare a meal from scratch for your family or friends
- Donate blood
- Send a handwritten letter
- Hold the elevator for someone
- Rake leaves for a neighbor
- Take a day to not complain
- Spread some encouragement online (“this is a great photo”, “love your smile” …)
- Send coloring books to kids in the hospital
- Make someone a handmade scarf or blanket
- Tutor a student struggling in your favorite subject
- Reconnect with old friends
- Tell a joke to make someone laugh
- Cut out coupons and stick them on related items
- Volunteer at a homeless shelter or soup kitchen
- Donate supplies to your local animal shelter
- Recycle
- Offer to walk your neighbor’s dog
- Donate a new toy to Toys for Tots or to a local children’s hospital, or orphanage
- Take flowers from a wedding or party to your local nursing home
- Say “Thank you” even for the little things
- Collect soda tabs for the Roald McDonald House
- Donate stuffed animals to the police (for children)
- Hand out gloves/mittens to the homeless
- Hide a few dollar bills around the dollar store
- Join your local volunteer fire department
- Leave a positive note or quote on the bathroom mirror
- For a whole day, smile at everyone you see
“Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”
Hebrews 13:2