Black Friday Blues? Brown Bag It!

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is typically an orgy of shopping. With an economy on the fritz ("Markets Dive, Carving New Lows," a recent headline, evoked tasty if distressing imagery), a new Xbox 360 may not be high on your list of must-haves. So what else can you do to fill the day at home with your extended family?

One idea: stay home and bake cookies. I know, I know. You're thinking "I just ate an entire pie by myself. Actually: two pies." That's totally fine! You were just warming up for Friday's cookie mania.

Each year, New Hampshire's Brown Bag Designs donates the profits from one of its cookie molds to a charitable organization. This year's "Heifer and Friends" mold benefits Heifer International, the excellent nonprofit Tonic has already celebrated for providing livestock to families in developing countries, helping them become self-sufficient entrepeneurs.

Last year's "Our House" mold is still available, benefiting Habitat for Humanity's reconstruction of the Gulf Coast. That one calls out for icing. So when the in-laws start to bicker and leftovers run perilously low, glide out of the kitchen with a tray of freshly baked cookies and a story about how you're helping families in need.