Giving feels great—so great that there’s an entire holiday season devoted to it. This year, instead of limiting yourself to conventional presents, give a gift that extends that warm and fuzzy feeling to your loved ones. Making a donation in someone else’s name or gifting an item that benefits a charity is the perfect way to brighten the holidays for those who need it most. And when your friends and family feel included in the effort, a little generosity can go a long way.

1. ONE WORLD FUTBOL; $39.50

For every soccer ball purchased from the One World Play Project, one ball is given to children in a disadvantaged community. The organization’s model is simple but effective: So far over 1 million balls have been distributed in the name of “the power of play.” Each ball is ultra-durable, making it a great gift for any roughhousing kid.

Give back: One World Play Project

2. WHOLE TURKEY FOR A BIG CAT; $20

More than 80 lions, tigers, bobcats, cougars, and other exotic cats call the Big Cat Rescue sanctuary in Tampa, Florida home. After rescuing the abused or abandoned animals, BCR provides them with shelter, healthcare, and plenty of fresh meat to eat. One of their favorite treats to enjoy around the holidays is poultry. For $20, you can make a big cat’s day with a whole turkey given in someone else’s name. The sanctuary also lists cheaper gift options: $10 for a chicken or half turkey for medium-sized cats and a $5 Cornish game hen for even smaller cats. If your donation exceeds the cost of the bird, that money will go to meeting other needs around the sanctuary.

Give back: Big Cat Rescue

3. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHER’S HANDBOOK: THE 826 NATIONAL GUIDE TO WRITING YOUR MEMOIR; $13

Whether you’re a part-time pirate, superhero, or cryptozoologist, there’s an 826 chapter out there for you. The national organization of themed tutoring centers has been inspiring kids to read and write since 2002. If you’re looking for a way to give back to the nonprofit, includeThe Autobiographer’s Handbook: The 826 National Guide to Writing Your Memoir on your holiday shopping list. This how-to guide is full of precious nuggets of advice from accomplished writers like Elizabeth Gilbert, Nick Hornby, and Sarah Vowell. In addition to upping your memoir writing game, the proceeds of each purchase will directly benefit the student programs offered at 826 centers across the country.

Give back: Amazon

4. ROMA BOOTS; $62

Roma makes giving back look good. Every purchase of a pair of their sleek, fashionable boots results in a new pair donated to an underprivileged child. The shoes come in a variety of styles and designs, with the cheapest classic boot priced at $62.

Give back: Roma

5. ALPACA; $150

If you’ve ever dreamed of owning an Alpaca but don’t have the yard space, buying one for someone in need is a great alternative. Heifer International does more than provide livestock to families—they also empower them with the tools and knowledge they need to turn animal products like milk and wool into a source of income. Alpacas are some of the more fun items in their gift catalogue, but gifters have their pick of farm animals ranging from $20 for a flock of ducks to $500 for a heifer. After selecting the gift, donors can send a personalized card to the person who inspired it.

Give back: Heifer International

6. JELLY HEART IPHONE CASE; $30

If you have a friend who still hasn’t gotten around to putting a cover on their phone, here’s a good excuse to buy them one. One hundred percent of the proceeds from this stylish iPhone 6 case go to The American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR). The organization’s Countdown to a Cure for AIDS project aims to find the basis for a cure by the year 2020. They plan to put $100 million towards the initiative, so every dollar helps.

Give back: The Blonde Salad

7. SOLAR LANTERN; $40

For families living without access to electricity, a simple lantern can help extend their day. This solar-powered lamp from the global charity Oxfam doubles as a cell phone charger. And because it runs on sunlight, owners never have to worry about spending money on fuel or batteries. If you want to donate the lantern in honor of someone else, Oxfam gives you the option to send them a physical or digital card or print one out at home.

Give back: Oxfam

8. NARWHAL ADOPTION KIT; $55

Narwhals are known as the unicorns of the sea for a reason—they’re mysterious, elusive, and famous for their horn-like teeth that grow up to 8.8 feet long. For just $55, you can symbolically adopt the sea creature for yourself or someone you know. An adoption kit includes a photo, a plush toy, a gift bag, a species card, and an adoption certificate from the World Wildlife Fund. Donors looking to make an even bigger impact can choose to opt out of the gifts with more of the proceeds going towards WWF’s conservation efforts around the world. And if you don’t have any whale lovers in your life, WWF has dozens more “adoptable” species to choose from.

Give back: World Wildlife Fund

9. MOSQUITO NET; $10

One of the easiest ways to save a life is by providing a mosquito net to a family that needs one. According to Nothing But Nets, a campaign from the UN foundation, bed netting reduces malaria rates by 90 percent. After donating $10, the organization will send a insecticide-treated net to a home in sub-Saharan Africa where the disease is especially prevalent.

Give back: Nothing But Nets

10. COOKIE JAR MIX; $15

If you don’t have the energy to bake cookies for everyone on your gift list this season, buy them a jar of dry mix instead. The mixes come in two flavors, pumpkin and s’more, and include a recipe for putting all the components together. The cause it benefits makes this sweet treat even more satisfying: For every jar purchased, That’s Caring will donate a weekend food bag to a child facing food insecurity.

Give back: That’s Caring

11. THE UNEXPECTED PIT BULL 2017 CALENDAR; $20

This 2017 wall calendar shows that pit bulls are just as deserving of love as any other breed. The calendar includes photos of the dogs jumping, snuggling, and striking handsome poses, and each month features a true story from a human owner who’s taken a pit bull into their home. All of the proceeds go to helping dog rescue and advocacy groups. For animal lovers who can’t adopt a pet of their own, hanging up this wall calendar is a simple way to show support.

Give Back: The Unexpected Pit Bull

If you have access to an industrial crane and a piano, why not use the former to drop the latter from a great height? That’s the attitude behind the annual piano drop in Winters, California, where the township gathers to see an old, discarded piano raised 60 feet (or more) off the ground and then dropped, smashing to the asphalt below.

The pianos are gathered from a stable of unwanted instruments that would typically be found in the dump or gathering mold in someone’s basement—too warped or rusted to be of any practical use. After a mini-memorial service during which organizers play Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces,” the pianos are sent hurtling toward the ground. Kids even gather up afterward to collect the broken bits. MIT students performed a similar ritual starting in 1972, when aeronautical engineering student Charlie Bruno decided to push a baby grand off a six-story building.

Roughly 350 attendees watched this year’s drop, which has a close cousin in the military-inspired ritual of burning unwanted pianos. Last year, a piano in Winters was also apparently thrown off a bridge.

The musical sadism is overseen by the Winters City Council: Council member Bruce Guelden told Atlas Obscura that he considered this year’s drop a success because “nobody died.” We’re not really sure what’s going on in Winters, but we like it.

[h/t Atlas Obscura]

Whether you’re a LEGO Star Wars builder or have one on your holiday shopping list, Amazon is running a deal you need to see. The world’s biggest store is reducing prices by 20 percent or more on a handful of LEGO Star Wars sets, and there’s something at almost any price point. A few sets have already sold out, so if you’re still looking for a perfect gift for the LEGO or Star Wars buff in your life, act quickly. 

Mental Floss has affiliate relationships with certain retailers (including Amazon) and may receive a small percentage of any sale. But we only get commission on items you buy and don’t return, so we’re only happy if you’re happy. Good luck deal hunting!

LEGO STAR WARS Imperial Assault Hovertank 75152 for $23.99 (list price $29.99)

LEGO STAR WARS AT-ST Walker 75153 for $31.99 (list price $39.99)

LEGO STAR WARS Rebel U-Wing Fighter 75155 for $63.99 (list price $79.99)

LEGO STAR WARS Krennic’s Imperial Shuttle 75156 for $71.99 (list price $89.99)

LEGO STAR WARS TIE Striker 75154 for $54.00 (list price $69.99)

LEGO Star Wars Imperial Shuttle Tydirium 75094 Building Kit for $63.99 (list price $99.99)

LEGO Star Wars Death Star Final Duel 75093 Building Kit for $50.39 (list price $79.99)

LEGO STAR WARS Imperial Death Trooper 75121 for $19.99 (list price $24.99)

LEGO Star Wars Poe’s X-Wing Fighter 75102 Building Kit for $62.00 (list price $79.99)

LEGO Star Wars Carbon-Freezing Chamber 75137 for $16.79 (list price $24.99)

LEGO Star Wars Rey’s Speeder 75099 Building Kit for $12.79 (list price $19.99)

We know all about the hazards of drinking and driving, and we’re beginning to realize how dangerous distracted driving can be, too. But a new report compiled by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety highlights an oft-overlooked danger—getting behind the wheel while sleep-deprived. According to their findings, motorists who miss just one to two hours of the suggested seven or more hours of shut-eye nearly double their odds of a crash.

The report was based on data provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and mined from police-reported crashes that involved a tow vehicle and/or an emergency medical response. Drivers involved in these incidents were asked how much sleep they had gotten in the prior 24 hours [PDF].

Not surprisingly, the AAA Foundation’s report found that the less sleep drivers got, the more their probability of a crash climbed: Those with only five to six hours of sleep under their belt were nearly twice as likely to crash, but drivers with only four or five hours of sleep risked four times the crash rate.

Sleep deprivation is bad across the board: In addition to making us moody, it diminishes our productivity at work (in turn, costing the U.S. economy $411 billion); hurts our memory; weakens our immune system; and may increase our risk for obesity, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. Perhaps most dangerously, though, it causes cognitive impairment: One study found that subjects who hadn’t slept for 17 to 19 hours performed equivalent or worse on tests than if they had a blood-alcohol level of .05.

“You cannot miss sleep and still expect to be able to safely function behind the wheel,” Dr. David Yang, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety’s executive director, said in a news release.

Unfortunately, a good portion of drivers on the road are likely sleep-deprived: 35 percent of American adults sleep less than seven hours daily, according to a recent study conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, nearly one in three drivers admitted to the AAA Foundation that they “drove when they were so tired they had a hard time keeping their eyes open” in the past month.

It can be hard to gauge when you’re too tired to drive. According to the AAA Foundation, more than half of drivers involved in fatigue-related crashes reportedly experienced no symptoms before falling asleep behind the wheel. So before you get into the car, pay less attention to how you feel physically, and instead think back to whether you got seven or more hours. If you didn’t, consider taking public transit, contacting a cab or ride-sharing service, or taking a nap before you drive. As for longer road trips, avoid driving later at night, take regular breaks (every 100 miles or so), and have a companion in the passenger seat that will keep you awake and take over driving duties when you feel tired.

From now until January 22, the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York will take visitors underwater. Not in the literal sense—the museum will be drowning in expertly crocheted sea life as part of its Crochet Coral Reef: Toxic Seas exhibit. The showcases the work of sisters Margaret and Christine Wertheim, who started the Crochet Coral Reef project in 2005 in collaboration with the Institute for Figuring, a non-profit that melds science and math with art.

The Wertheims started their fiber reef when they learned pollution and global warming may soon completely destroy the Great Barrier Reef in their home country of Australia. Over the next few years of crocheting, the replica reef took over their home. Soon, they encouraged others to join in, making it one of the largest community art projects in the world. Since its inception, the project has grown to include around 8000 participants.

Anyone can start creating a satellite reef out of anything that can be crocheted (like wire, yarn, or even strips of fabric). But to have it be an official satellite reef, interested crocheters need to contact the Institute for Figuring, which will ask for a fee based on a sliding scale to help pay for the satellite reef’s community outreach and workshops.

Each fiber reef is created according to the principles of hyperbolic crochet, a process that uses a geometric formula to create mathematically pure crocheted shapes. The beauty of hyperbolic crochet lies in its simplicity; it’s basically just repeating one process over and over again. The initial pattern for beginners is a hyperbolic plane, a series of single crochets and increases—a base chain of any number, followed by single crochets with an increase at set intervals. The finished product is a sheet of cloth with wavy edges that curl in among themselves.

 
To make other coral types, each crocheter slightly alters the pattern by changing the increase intervals, adding in other stitch types, or otherwise altering the base chain to produce an endless amount of reef-life forms—replicating the math inherent in live reefs. Reefs in the wild are often created with naturally occurring hyperbolic geometry, which packs as much surface area into a small space as possible, creating a surface similar to the human brain’s folded appearance.

“It turns out that hyperbolic structures are very common in nature, and the place where lots of people encounter them is coral reefs,” Margaret Wertheim told Guernica in an interview last year. “Sea slugs, and a lot of other organisms with frilly forms, are biological manifestations of hyperbolic geometry.” Coral pieces can be crocheted flat, in a round, or starting from a single point to create a spiraled shape. Every piece will form differently depending on the algorithm, gauge, and yarn.

In addition to shedding light on the issues facing coral reefs today and practicing applied mathematics, the Crochet Coral Reef is also breaking gender boundaries in the science world. Most of the Crochet Reefers are women, while men are generally over-represented in STEM disciplines. That said, the majority of the Crochet Coral Reef’s funding comes not from scientific foundations but from the art world. As Wertheim told Guernica, traditional science funders generally are uninterested in the project. At one point, a senior program office told her that he’d “find it hard to convince [his] board that there is any real science in a bunch of women knitting.”

But although she likes to crochet, Wertheim is also a physicist and science writer; one of her personal goals is to increase female participation in the sciences. That’s also one of her goals with the Crochet Reef Project.

“The Crochet Coral Reef project offers a kind of feminist metaphor for how we might approach the problems of global warming through collective action,” she said in the interview. “Rather than relying on a few individual geniuses inventing some technological solution, let’s try and think about this together.”