This Halloween I really, really wanted to dress up as a sexy pumpkin.

I searched Target from end to end for a costume with no avail. Damn.

Maybe next year? I think it’s a noble goal.

Good news, though. Christmas decorations are up, and it looks as though the toy section is ripe with potential gifts. All those fake trees, Hello Kitty stockings (though, I do prefer Chococat) and tubes upon tubes of wrapping paper get me all excited to celebrate a holiday I don’t even observe.

Obviously, by celebrate I mean buy a bunch of stuff I don’t actually need.

Christmas, and the holidays in general, are rarely events during which we reflect on the amazing lives we have. We don’t think about how we have clean water, basic human rights, ready supplies of food or peace in our country.

But the thing is, so few people have lives like we do. How often do we think about that? I am willing to bet not very often.

Since the holidays are essentially upon us, I thought I’d take this opportunity to make a preemptive statement: This year, instead of thinking about and buying all the useless crap we want (I am included in “we”), let’s take time to consider all the other stuff we could do to celebrate whatever it is each of us believes in.

For example, Thanksgiving is just a few weeks away, and I think most of us at least formulate a sentence or two about what we’re thankful for.

But how many of us devote time to expressing gratitude or devote our Thanksgiving Day thankfulness to something really important?

After watching the movie “Flow” I became quite concerned about the global water and related humanitarian crises. I realized I barely think about my water, let alone consider how thankful I am for it. So this year, instead of relishing in a lavish dinner, one many people could hardly imagine, I will devote time to volunteering or fundraising for water-related humanitarian organizations

It is important to turn thankfulness into action.

And Christmas is an even better opportunity to turn our holiday excitement into action.

Christmas is crazy. It’s a time when really rich people think up all the stuff they want to amass, and then spend tons of money buying it all.

People are judged on how much money they spend on gifts and how elaborate the wrapping is. And families that can’t afford presents feel pressure to buy their kids as many gifts as possible.

It’s sad that a holiday we associate with generosity has become mutilated by consumerism.

There are kids who can’t eat, animals losing their habitats and nearly one-sixth of the global population is without drinking water. Wouldn’t you feel better if your generosity saved lives instead of just looked cute?

So when you’re walking down the aisles in Target and you see all the pretty décor and begin formulating your holiday gift list, think about the number of people you could help by simply donating, adopting or volunteering. Use the holidays to be a force for good in the world, not greed.

Reach Becky at rrubens1@asu.edu.