I agree with you... My wife's mother passed away at the end of november this year and the only charity she would invest in was the local SPCA. So this xmas, we got a wish list of stuff from the SPCA and got some donations together and deliveried over 700 buck-a-roos of stuff to the cause in honor of her.

This is going to be one of our traditions. Its nice to give cash to the charity(s) of your choosing, but to actually go out there and get what they need and help out - totally different feeling.