You have a great opportunity to do something different, make your world a better place and feel better about yourself.

You have a five day break where you are ‘time rich’ instead of the usual ‘time poor’ – when you use the excuse you do not have time to do things, or put them off.

The opportunity is the five days of Twixtmas – between the Christmas and New Year holidays – usually a period where people complain of being bored, restless, fed up with shopping and what to get out of the house.

If Christmas has become overwhelmed with materialism and New Year soaked in hedonism what about transforming the holiday break in between as a celebration of reciprocal altruism? Where you can do good for yourself, other people and feel even better as a result.

The non-commercial Twixtmas campaign is aiming to encourage everyone to make the most of the opportunity between December 27th to 31st to take small practical actions to make the world better in some way.

The campaign web site www.twixtmas offers practical advice and inspiration to encourage everyone to make the most of this under-used opportunity. The site also provides a free facility for sending a Twixtmas e greeting card, and you can also download a Twixtmas pledge form.

The idea was originally conceived by social enterprise the Flexible Thinking Forum, as a simple way of creating social good by thinking differently about the period between the two public holidays of Christmas and New Year, and make use of untapped resource, energy, and opportunities.

To help people get the most of period the campaign has themed each of the five days with a focus;
Day 1 is about spoiling yourself and thinking more positively about you.
Day 2 is do something for someone else, ideally a stranger – help a neighbour or good cause
Day 3 is help a friend
Day 4 is doing something for the planet
Day 5 is do something for your future

Reciprocal altruism is where you do something which may involve a cost in time, effort or expense in the short-term, but in the longer-run is in your interest.

“Imagine if most people did five things during Twixtmas to make the world a better place. Would it be great if you did some small thing to help make this happen?” said Twixtmas campaigner Andy Green of the Flexible Thinking Forum.

ENDS