There are many ways to start a new year. Drinking to oblivion, kissing a love one, watching television or all the news programs showing how people celebrate New Year around the world. And there’s the New Year resolutions. But I propose that we can all have a good beginning by giving.

Find a charity you trust and donate time or money. It could be to the Salvation Army, the Royal Children Hospital or to Care Australia.

Care Australia has a unique gift section where you can buy a gift that is useful to a family or a community overseas. It can be a blackboard for a school, a birthing kit, build a classroom or even the gift of a sheep. Now that’s an idea, isn’t it? Baa! Baa!

In a year that is predicted to give us raising interest rates and a potential recession, we need to remember the less fortunate.