I can already hear a few sighs or imagine someone rolling their eyes at me for daring to mention or even think of Christmas as early as October. I know - I feel the same way. For me, holidays in general have become so beyond commercialized that I am a "bah! humbug!" grouch as the winter holidays roll around. The rush and insanity even exists in Norway. Though our little island is just a smidgen of this. Thank goodness for my nerves.

I am especially weary of and somewhat mistrusting of charities that seemingly focus only on holiday specified periods, then switch to silence for the remainder of the year.

I have, however, decided to involve myself with this one, brought to my attention indirectly by Kathy. She has been struggling and trying her honest best to keep this charity alive and going for the areas in Middle, Tennessee, for families not only in need for Christmas, but for the remainder of the year. It's known as The Christmas Challenge, and it was launched by Bob Parks Realty.

Dailydiablogger - recently came to me asking if I could post a link to this charity in order to help generate some publicity for this. I gave it some thought and figured, sure, and created a little graphic to help. But then, I thought further, "isn't there something more I could do than create some pretty writing?"

Ok, so though I myself have very little in monetary funds I could offer, it suddenly came to me.

Back a few years I had another website which no longer exists, and on this site I used a palm tree to represent peace. Though I've long deleted and left the site behind, I kept the palm in hopes that I'd find another use for it someday.

Now you're thinking I've lost my mind. Why a palm tree? What in the heck does that have to do with Christmas?! Well, if you want to get technical, the pine trees we've been using for so long have little to nothing to do with Christmas at all, but follow me on this one.

I am no christian, nor do I profess a religion or spirituality of any kind. However, I grew up always hearing about the holiday season being a time of giving and "good will towards men". So, I thought, what could be a symbol that would include people from all backgrounds and religions, representative towards the simple act of giving? My PALM TREE! The Palm tree represents peoples' hands (palms) stretched out towards others in need; not only just during the holiday season, but for all seasons and for any reason behind the need.

So, it's my hopes that each of you reading this will take a tree, put it on your blog or website and generate the humaan act of giving to all of those in need - nevermind whether or not it is now, Christmas, or next June.

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Tree and / or logo script:

Don't worry if you don't know anything about script. I've all sizes here, and if you run a blog yourself, they should all fit nicely into your menus; just copy and paste them into your template. If you've a website, then you already most likely know about html or otherwise, in which case you won't have to be instructed. ;)

Big Tree:

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Medium Tree:

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Small Tree:

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Now, if you'd like, you could choose a logo instead, three different typical Christmas colors:

Red:

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Blue:

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Green: