Christmas News

For the inhabitants of a small town nestled on Lake Erie in the northeastern United States, Xmas has come unexpectedly early in the form of a 100-million-dollar gift from an anonymous donor!

According to Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and AFP a benefactor identified only as “anonymous friend” made the donation to a group of charitable and non-profit causes in the town of Erie, Pennsylvania. Erie is the state’s fourth-largest city with a population of 104,000. The town could use the money. About 19 per cent of the town’s population are classified as poor — twice the US average. Median household income is $31,196 against $48,451 nationally, and in 2006, it had an estimated 400 homeless people.

Town of Eire

The donor reportedly put no restrictions on how the money should be spent, but the town’s community foundation had decided to give between one and two million dollars to a host of local good causes. The head of the town’s community foundation, Mike Batchelor, told the Tribune-Review he was sworn to secrecy over the donor’s identity, refusing to say even whether the anonymous benefactor was still alive.

But according to the report, local beneficiaries including a food bank for the homeless, a women’s center and a group caring for the blind are more than happy to respect the donor’s wish to remain anonymous.

Biggest givers

The world’s top 5 most generous philanthropists (BusinessWeek’s 2006 ranking)

1 Warren Buffet CEO Berkshire Hathaway $40.7bn estimated lifetime giving to health, education, humanitarian causes
2 Bill and Melinda Gates Microsoft co-founders $28bn to health and development
3 George Soros Investor, $5.9bn to “Open and democratic societies”
4 Gordon and Betty Moore Intel co-founders $7.4bn to Environment, science
5 Herbert and Marion Sandler Golden West financial company co-founders $1.4bn to stem cell research, education

Americans will spend an average of $923.36 on holiday gifts, which includes $106.67 on impulse buys for themselves, according to the National Retail Federation. This is up a moderate 3.7 percent from last year, according to the federation’s survey. But some retail analysts are skeptical if that figure can be reached.

 In addition to a weakening economy, there are many other reasons why shoppers will be cautious and retrenching this holiday season: There is a dearth of the must-have items out there. There is nothing hot and new. Big screen TVs, iPods and cashmere sparked interest in recent years.

In UK its the other way around. Shoppers are expected to spend a record amount of money this Christmas. The average Briton will spend £706 on gifts, socialising, food and drink this Christmas, according to figures to be released this week by Deloitte, the accountants. This is 7 per cent more than they spent last year, a rise of more than three times the rate of inflation.