An Insider’s Ventura Gift Giving Guide part II

Let’s be honest. Normally this would be a season of celebration and gift giving. But this is a Holiday season like no other, a season when sometimes it feels like there is nothing to celebrate at all.

But even in the darkest times there is something bright. There is something to celebrate, in this strange Holiday season and in every season that follows, with whatever those seasons might bring. That something is human kindness. In our lives we’ve all seen it, often small moments and small gestures that aren’t, of course, small at all. These acts of kindness, they are small in the sense that they usually take place out of the limelight — between friends, between family members, between lovers. And so you don’t hear of them, unless, of course, you are the one practicing or receiving kindness.

Kindness doesn’t have to take the form of a gift, but, in these strange and difficult times, giving a gift serves a double kindness of sorts. One, you brighten someone’s day. And two, you brighten a local Ventura merchant’s day. Sure, maybe what you are buying is something very small because it’s all you can afford and that’s just fine because small things, taken up by lots of hands, turn into very, very big things. Forecasts say one in six Ventura retailers (and one out of two Ventura restaurants) won’t make it through through the pandemic. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Think of all the Ventura hands. Starting with yours.

How to help? You’ve already got that figured out. What to get? Well that’s where we’re here to help. Visit Ventura will be running a series of blogs with gift giving ideas provided to you by your fellow Venturans. Venturans who maybe don’t have a lot to spend, and know just the right place to spend it for maximum Kindness Impact. This blog is in time for the Holidays, but we’re going to keep running them, right on through this year and into the next.

Why?

Because a kindness can arrive at any time.

Thank you for helping keep Ventura’s businesses alive — gift by gift — while making a random day special for someone in your life who maybe could use a little bright.

Thank you for elevating kindness above darkness.

Without further ado some inside tips from some inside Venturans…