50/50 giving means sharing gifts or possessions with those who have nothing. As children, we were sometimes given a chocolate bar and told to share it with any siblings or friends who were around. This could cause arguments; but we soon learned that there was very little pleasure and sometimes some pain in secreting the gift and consuming the entire bar on our own. We also learned that we often got more by sharing a single bigger bar than if everyone had a smaller bar to himself.

The scriptural case for 50/50 giving at Christmas is in Luke 3:11. Here, John the Baptist is telling his followers how to prepare for their own encounter with Christ. ‘The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.’ People are admonished to give half of all they own to the poor. Ultimately, that is what 50/50 giving could mean for us. It is certainly what Jesus meant when he said, ‘sell your possessions and give to the poor. Then come, follow me.’ (Matthew 19:21). Both are about reducing, not accruing, material wealth.

For most people in the developed world, this may seem an unrealistic and impractical demand. Of course, Jesus was not noted for making realistic or practical suggestions! However, there are ways in which we can limit both our acquisition and our consumption of material goods, donating savings to an appropriate charity or project. Two individuals or households could agree to share a car, and donate the value of the second car. We might give away as much as we spend for pleasure: purchases that might be counted as luxuries rather than necessities, entertainment, holidays. These could be major lifestyle decisions for some.

In the immediate context, however, many of us could quite easily begin to practice 50/50 giving at Christmas. We can all take stock of how much we might spend on our own celebrations in advance of the event itself: including cards, food, travel, parties and pantomimes as well as presents. We can aspire to give an equivalent amount to charity. Or we can give as we spend, donating to charity £1 for every £1 spent in our own preparations. In the context of our national spending on Christmas, which amounts to tens of billions, charitable giving on a 50/50 basis would make a huge difference to poverty both locally and internationally (see http://www.casc-aid.org.uk/cost-christmas-points-ponder). It does not mean spending more, but spending differently.

50/50 giving can include alternative giving, purchasing fairly traded food, and buying gifts from charities. For children and teenagers, a gift-wrapped IOU under the tree may help restore any imbalance between Christmas Day frenzy and Boxing Day blues. Shop for their gifts in the post-Christmas sales, and donate the amount saved to charity. Leaflets: ‘Whose Birthday Are We Celebrating?’ Let’s remember that the Magi were bringing gifts of immense value, in their entirety, for Jesus, not for each other; and keep that thought uppermost in our preparations. As in the case of sharing chocolate among children, sharing amongst ourselves in order to give more to those who have nothing can result in greater gain all round.