By Rita McInerney

Alternatives, a not-for-profit educational organization, works closely with 12 Protestant denominations, a number of Catholic dioceses, and state Baptist conventions, on “how we can live more justly, be kinder to the environment and more humane,” according to Milo Thornberry, director.

Each year it conducts a “Best and Worst Christmas Gift contest” in which it invites people to describe in 300 words or less gifts they received the preceding Christmas which fit either category.

“It’s kind of a lighthearted way to take a poke at the commercialization of Christmas,” Thornberry said in a telephone interview with the Georgia Bulletin. “It also points out some wonderful creativity as well as abuses that take place in the name of Christmas.”

For the two winners in the best and worst category, $500 is given in each name to the non-profit charity of choice. For the two runners-up in each category, $200 is given in each winner’s name to the charity of choice.

Entries should be received at Alternatives, P.O. Box 429, Ellenwood, Ga., 30049, by Dec. 15. Winners will be announced shortly thereafter.

Entries are received, Thornberry said, from every state in the United States and province in Canada.

The best gift last year was one received by a woman in Ypsilanti, Mich. She was retired, living on a limited income, and had a son terminally ill in Memphis, Tenn. Friends and family gave her a two-week trip to see him. It was, she said in her entry, “without doubt the best gift and the saddest Christmas ever.”

She designated her $500 prize to go to the cancer research wing of the Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

Runner-up winners in the best gift category were a just-married woman in Ohio whose new in-laws have prepared a family trivia pursuit game to “bring her into the family,” and a woman in California who received a homemade calendar from a distant friend. The pages for each month contained pictures and dates of the special times shared by the two friends.

Top award in the worst gift category went to an Ohio woman, who was alcoholic and diabetic. She wasn’t a “closet” alcoholic but rather one who worked with others to fight the disease. Her gift, from people who knew of her struggle, was a large bottle of an expensive liqueur.

Thornberry said Alternatives, through its quarterly newsletter and other mailings, urges people to purchase gifts from self-help craft groups, both domestic and overseas.

The fall issue, he added had an article listing war toys, which he called a real invasion on the market this year, an irony for the celebration of the birth of the Prince of Peace. The article seemed to strike a note with parents feeling pressure to provide such non-peaceful instruments of play.

The small community of Ellenwood is located about 15 miles southeast of Atlanta, about five miles south of the perimeter. Alternatives is located in a renovated general store.

Along with the Christmas material, the organization also provides mailings for Lent and Easter and holidays throughout the year. There is a mail order book service with about 100 titles on resources for responsible living and celebrating, including a good deal of children’s material, Thornberry said.

(The telephone number of Alternatives is 961-0102).