I already made a donation this year to Toys for Tots, but it turned out I'd also bought a 10-year-old on my list a game he already had. I was at a T-mobile store to get my phone fixed, and I asked the manager where there was a Toys for Tots drop-off in the shopping center.

"Right over there," he said, pointing to the other side of the room. So I put the board game in, and then we talked a bit. As I was leaving, he hesitated. "God bless you," he said. "When I was a kid, my mom used Toys for Tots. If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have had anything for Christmas."

(Insert the sound of a blogger choking up here.)

You can make an online donation here and designate to your town, or to wherever it's needed most. Things are so bad out there. The NY Toys for Tots reports that this year, they have a record number of 1.2 million families who've requested help. That's a lot of kids, so if you can help, throw a few bucks their way.