Americans spent more in two months on holiday items than they did all year on charitable giving in 2006. Holiday retail sales for November and December 2006 in the general merchandise category were up about 4.6 percent, totaling roughly $456 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. Charitable giving for 2006 set a record, topping $300 billion.

"I started a program called Holiday For Charity in 2002 because I thought that Americans should be giving at least as much to charity as they are spending on holiday gifts," says Harry Hoover, partner of My Creative Team. "We've seen some hefty increases in charitable giving and I hope that people will continue to give to charity as they did last year. The Holiday For Charity program provides some simple ways to help the less fortunate."

Here's how Holiday For Charity works:

• ask friends, family and business associates to donate to a charity instead of buying you holiday gifts
• sell the holiday gifts you receive online at eBay's GivingWorks, http://pages.ebay.com/givingworks, and donate the proceeds to charity
• register and shop at iGive.com, whose merchants donate a portion of each transaction to the charities of your choice
• offer to do volunteer work in lieu of buying holiday gifts
• donate directly to charity in lieu of buying holiday gifts for clients and customers

My Creative Team, www.My-CreativeTeam.com, is a Charlotte, NC area network of highly experienced and talented independent professionals that gives clients better work that's a better value. The ad agency delivers great work, on time and on target, and that makes the client look good.

Services include turnkey website development and promotion, presentation development, email marketing programs, pay-per-click advertising, advertising, media planning and buying, PR, and video production. Clients range from Jacobsen, National Gypsum and Rubbermaid to Bank of Commerce and Focus Four.