What's the story with Christmas charity?

This time next week our annual orgy of wanton consumption finally reaches its climax and the crowds on our shopping streets and the festive songs on our radios and supermarket PA systems will all too slowly begin to fade to memory.

If you haven't already blown your present budget on life-sized phoney ponies, over-priced games consoles and zeitgiesty MP3 players, then there is still time to spend some on something, perhaps a little more worthy.

"This year, instead of buying useless presents, buy something that could change someone's life," goes the message on a short video from Oxfam Ireland released on YouTube (www.youtube.com) earlier this month. The video is an attempt to point people in the direction of the charity's online shopping site, Oxfam Ireland Unwrapped (www.oxfamirelandunwrapped.com), in order to capture a bigger share of the festive spendfest. And it might be working - the Unwrapped site will raise in the region of €650,000 for Oxfam this year, with the majority of the cash coming in the run-up to Christmas.

While the deadline for buying online from most commercially driven retailers has long since expired, Oxfam Ireland says it will continue processing orders through its Unwrapped site right up until the end of this week. It can cut it so fine because the presents on offer are not being posted to your friends or family but being sent to the developing world.

With a single click, a share of a bull can be bought for €70 while a mosquito net can be someone else's for just €12. The presents range in price from €7 for life-saving buckets for drinking water to a decent water supply for an entire community for €3,120.

Once you buy the gift, you're directed to Oxfam's e-card section where you can pick a card and enter a message. The recipient gets the e-card straight away, explaining what you've bought them, and an actual card and fridge magnet comes in the regular post. The charity is also offering fair trade token gifts, eg colouring pencils from Tanzania, to act as stocking fillers.

Oxfam Ireland insists that the money raised will not simply go into a slush fund to be diverted to causes as the NGO sees fit but will be spent on the items listed.

AT THE BEGINNINGof the year charity co-ordinators sit down and work out exactly how many of each specific item it needs to keep its programmes in certain countries going.

"We work out that we need a specific number of stoves, for example, and when that number is reached then we stop selling that product," explains Stephanie Casey, marketing and communications manager with Oxfam Ireland. "These are not nominal gifts; the money is used to buy the things that you select," she says. "We have enough goats this year so we're not selling them on the site, but we do need veterinary care."

A veterinary package, including vaccinations and inoculations, syringes, dosage guns, wellies and lab coats, training and transport, can be bought on the site for just €20.

Charities which send livestock to the developing world have been criticised by animal welfare groups for abandoning the animals and not teaching families how best to care for them.

"We want to counteract claims made that we just drop the animals in the middle of nowhere and leave both them and the families who have received them to fend for themselves," says Casey.

"That isn't the case. There is a whole programme surrounding this, and when you buy your gift you are paying for the whole programme."

IN ADDITION TOlivestock, food programmes, school books and uniforms and water supplies sold on the site, there is also a roaring trade in condoms, the sale of which "could be seen as controversial in some quarters", says Casey. "But we are not going to shy away from selling them because the prevention of HIV and Aids is so critical."

While it is undoubtedly a good cause, don't the people who get a part share in a bull they will never see get a little disappointed when everyone else is getting presents they can either drink, eat, wear or play with?

Casey doesn't believe so and says it is rare that a gift to be sent to the developing world is the only present in an Irish Christmas stocking. "It is amazing the amount of grandparents who buy presents on our Unwrapped website, but I don't think for a moment it is the only present they will be getting for their grandchildren," she says.

In January, Oxfam Ireland will launch a special bridal section of its Unwrapped website to allow couples carry their wedding lists on the site. So far there has been "an amazing amount of interest in the service", possibly because couples are getting married later now and have pretty much all they need when it comes to toasters, kettles and the like.

Oxfam Ireland is of course not the only charity offering people the option of buying gifts for families in the developing world. Bóthar, Trócaire, Concern and Gorta all have gift options on their websites. The revenue generated from Christmas donations and gifts can make up a significant portion of a charity's fundraising efforts each year.

Trócaire raised €3.5 million from its global gift programme last year. For its part, Bóthar has been bringing Irish dairy cows to the developing world since the early 1990s, and its pure-bred cows are currently to be found grazing in Malawi, Lebanon, Albania and Kosovo amongst many other countries.

An Irish dairy cow can produce as much as 20 times more milk than a Ugandan-born cow, which explains their price tag of €1,800; shares in the beasts can be bought for as little as €40.

It is not cows or goats but a cake sale that has become one of the biggest money spinners for Oxfam Ireland this Christmas. The Cake Sale CD, a charity project inspired and organised by Brian Crosby of Dublin rock band Bell X1, features some of the great and good of the Irish music scene (and one Swedish chanteuse) singing each other's songs. It went platinum earlier this month with sales of 24,000, generating more than €250,000 for Oxfam's Fair Trade mission in the process.

And it's not done selling yet: anyone looking for a last-minute stocking-filler could do a whole lot worse than get their hands on a copy of the CD either through Oxfam Ireland or one of the country's better record shops. The charity will earn €11 from each copy sold - the tunes are pretty good too.

Oxfam Ireland: www.oxfamireland.org 1890-606065

Bóthar: www.bothar.ie 1800-268463

Concern: www.concern.ie 01-4754162 Gorta: www.gorta.ie 01-6615522 Trócaire: www.trocaire.ie, 01-6293333