Left: Alternative Gift Market at Rosary Church in Idaho Falls.

Little Abbey asked her grandmother, "Do you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah?" Dr. Goldye Meyer responded that she observes Hanukkah. "We do both!" exclaimed her granddaughter.

Like this family, you may celebrate this season with a variety of traditions, including the giving of gifts. If you are thinking about ways to transform your holidays from a stressful and expensive experience to a joyful and spiritual awakening, you are not alone. Many people have been developing new approaches, and here are a few examples.

An article in the New York Times recently featured a "religiously hybrid family" that celebrates the season with Hanukkah lights, a Christmas tree, and a family ritual of charitable giving. The family sets aside one evening to review together a wide variety of solicitations, and each child gets to donate $100 to one or more organizations. Click here for the full story.

Another gift idea is to make a donation in the recipient's honor. Look around for an Alternative Gift Market. Booths provide games in order to showcase gift ideas, such as the "fishing booth" where kids can try their hand and parents can donate to raise funds to help establish fish farming in Cambodia (and get a packet of material to wrap up for Uncle Joe to tell him about the gift in his honor). Llama rides are provided to promote donations to purchase alpacas for Peruvian families. Every year more and more community organizations and spiritual communities are sponsoring alternative gift markets.

If you can't find a market near you, go online. Here is a sampling of ways to honor the people you love:

• Have fruit trees planted in a village in a developing country through Trees of Life.
• Send food baskets filled with hand-made cheeses and local organic products (check your organic food market.)
• Buy gifts produced by women in developing economies through organizations like Mayaworks and Aid to Artisans.
• Provide a secure source of food to an impoverished family by donating to Heiffer International.
• Fight deforestation in Kenya by planting a tree through the Green Belt Movement.

The Sioux City, Iowa-based Alternatives for Simple Living encourages churches and families to simplify their holiday celebration by cutting consumerism and focusing on the religious significance of Christmas. Their Christmas campaign resources are geared for 25 different denominations and include ceremonies, an Advent calendar with daily thoughts and actions, and suggestions for remembering the needy, such as an Alternative Giving Card used to honor people through gifts to charity.

A String and a Prayer
by Eleanor Wiley and Maggie Oman Shannon

Eleanor Wiley, a former speech pathologist and gerontologist, began making jewelry about seven years ago. Nearing age 60 she faced a vocational and spiritual crisis and began making prayer beads. A fossil ivory "Goddess of Transformation" came her way and her first set of prayer beads was born. She teaches workshops on making prayer beads as a spiritual practice all over the world. Maggie Oman Shannon is the author of The Way We Pray and editor of Prayers for Common Healing. A prolific author, she is the founder of The New Story, an online salon of creative resources and spiritual tools for living to one's deepest purpose.

Crones Don't Whine: Concentrated Wisdom for Juicy Women
by Jean Shinoda Bolen

A new perspective on the word, "crone." The books offers 13 defining crone qualities that, when taken to heart and cultivated, support authenticity, integrity and soul growth. Also: "Exceptional Men Can Be Crones," "Crones Together Can Change the World," and "Musings."

The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness
by Karen Armstrong

The moving story of the author's own search for God by the highly-acclaimed author of the bestselling A History of God; The Battle for God; and Islam, a Short History. Powerfully engaging, often-heart-breaking, but lit with bursts of humor, The Spiral Staircase is an extraordinary history of self.

The Soul of Money
by Lynne Twist with Teresa Barker

This compelling and fundamentally liberating book shows that examining our attitudes toward money -- earning it, spending it, and giving it away -- can offer surprising insight into our lives, our values and the essence of prosperity. Through moving stories and practical principles, Lynne Twist demonstrates how to replace feelings of scarcity, guilt and burden with experiences of sufficiency, freedom and purpose.

Left: "Ethiopian Madonna," a banner created by artist Lydia Ruyle (far right in the photo).

As we send you this newsletter, a delegation from Women's Perspective is meeting and working with women in Kenya. In addition to attending the International HIV/AIDS Conference, we will also meet with Mama Na Dada, an organization that supports African girls with health and education services. To help us greet the women we meet in Kenya, Lyd ia Ruyle is sending six of her fabulous banners that depict icons of the sacred feminine.

Transformational Education
Women's Perspective invites you to explore new ways to align your financial life with your core values. We offer transformational travel opportunities, such as our trip to Kenya, and we provide workshops on money and spirituality.

Just Scheduled in Westport, CT!
Dec. 9, 6:30-8:30 pm; Connecting Your Pocketbook to Your Soul: A Spiritual Approach to Making Your Financial Decisions; talk by Rosemary Williams sponsored by the Barnard Alumnae of Connecticut; Westport Library, Westport, CT, 2nd Floor Seminar Room. $5 contribution to refreshments. RSVP: Joanne Kabak, 203-454-0046 or clarity@optonline. net.

Women's Perspective has received a $5,000 matching grant from a generous benefactor, who will match your donation. As a result, your gift will have twice the power to provide transformational education for women seeking to align their financial lives with their spiritual values.

Please consider making a donation today; your contribution is fully tax-deductible. Click here for donor information.

As this year draws to a close, we want to express our heartfelt appreciation to all of you for helping Women's Perspective help others to connect their financial lives with their core values:

• To our volunteers: Thank you for your creativity and hard work on money and spirit programs and events.
• To our financial contributors: Thank you for making it possible to extend our services to disadvantaged women in the US and in the developing world.
• To our board members: Thank you for your leadership, wise counsel and mutual support.
• To our host organizations: Thank you for making your facilities available for our events and workshops.
• To our sister nonprofit organizations: Thank you for your encouragement and expertise as we grow.
• To those who attend our workshops and use our materials: Thank you for participating in this adventure so fearlessly and for giving us your honest and helpful feedback.
• To women everywhere: Thank you for the love and courage that you bring to the work of aligning your financial lives with your spiritual values.

Left: Intern Ashley Ferranti poses with a young boy at an orphanage in the countryside of Xi'an, China.

This fall WP welcomed Ashley Ferranti as a student intern from Fairfield University, where she is studying Chinese language and theology. Ashley is also minoring in women's studies and is the founder of the Women's Circle at the university. She hopes to pursue a career working with women's issues, so interning with WP is a great fit for her.

Ashley is a member of Gather the Women. She attended GTW's Congress this year in Dallas, and she is now starting a related organization called Gather the Girls. Ashley had this to say about her intership:

"I absolutely love my intership with Women's Perspective, especially as I'm so interested in women's issues, spirituality and religion. When I heard about WP, I read Rosemary's book and I immediately became interested and curious. I believe I can contribute a lot to Women's Perspective by doing research on the the way different religions treat money.

As a world traveler, Ashley is interested in WP's work in Kenya and hopes to be able to participate in those relationships at some point.

Left: Alysondra Duke, intern this year at Women's Perspective.

Women's Perspective is pleased to welcome Alysondra Duke as our "distance intern." She will work on research projects for WP while she is a student on campus at Minnesota State University, Mankato, where she is a graduate student in women's studies. Alysondra shared these thoughts about interning for WP:

"Until the moment I met Rosemary Williams, I never realized there was peace to be made, as women, with our financial lives. Because finances and spirituality are very important issues to us all, it is easy to feel passionate about the intersectionality of the two. I see a struggle within many women to make finances a more positive and rewarding experience. My time spent in both the workplace and academia has taught me an important lesson: There is not adequate financial education for women and girls, and it is time to make a change.

My academic history circles about issues pertaining to women and girls. Women's Perspective offers a myriad of interesting opportunities and points of view that I cannot wait to better familiarize myself with. I think this work is important and I very much want to be a part of it. There is something beautiful that emerges from helping one another to become more comfortable in this life. I welcome this opportunity to be a Women's Perspective intern with open arms!"