Big List of Random Acts of Kindness

With the holidays upon us, many of us might be looking for ways to give back, and this big list of Random Acts of Kindness includes some ideas for you. But other ideas are just simple acts that you can perform in your everyday life.

World Kindness Day is an international observance that falls every year on November 13. These little gestures are sometimes also known by the acronym RAOK, and you don't really need an international holiday to do any of them.

Pay it forward so that you might inspire someone else to do the same for another person.

This list is in no particular order of importance, and I've tried to include ideas for different age groups. Enjoy!

Big List of Random Acts of Kindness - RAOK

1. Help an elderly person cross the street.
2. Help a younger sibling with homework.
3. Let a car merge in front of you.
4. Participate in a beach or roadside cleanup.
5. If you are in the market for a new pet, adopt from a shelter.
6. Help rebuild destroyed homes and communities.
7. Pay the toll for the car behind you.
8. Introduce yourself to neighbors and bring baked goods or sweets.
9. Buy an extra cup of coffee in the morning to give to a co-worker.
10. Open the door for someone.
11. Help someone with their bags or luggage.
12. Offer to take a picture for a group tourists so that everyone can be in the picture.
13. Pay for the coffee for the person behind you.
14. Share your notes with a classmate.
15. Help a friend move.
16. Talk to someone new and make a new friend.
17. Help a lost tourist with directions.
18. Pick up litter and put it in a trash can.
19. Make a homemade treat for your pet.
20. Give a generous tip to your waiter.
21. Compliment a stranger.
22. Let someone take the better parking spot.
23. Volunteer to give a tour of your school.
24. Bring sweet treats to the office to share.
25. Donate your blood at a blood drive.
26. Sit with someone who is eating alone.
27. Read to young children or the elderly.
28. Recommend your favorite restaurant to a tourist.
29. Volunteer at a soup kitchen.
30. Do a household chore that is assigned to someone else.
31. Praise a child to his or her parents while the child is present.
32. Hold the elevator door for others.
33. Offer someone a piece of gum.
34. Bring misplaced shopping carts back to the designated area.
35. Organize a study session for your classmates.
36. Send a photo in a frame to your parents (or grandparents).
37. Offer to babysit your friends' kids for free so that they can go out on a date.
38. Donate hair to a charity that makes wigs for cancer patients.
39. Sign up to be an organ donor.
40. Leave extra time in a parking meter.
41. Return a lost item to the owner (if identifiable) or otherwise to the nearest Lost and Found.
42. Visit a nursing home and make a new friend.
43. Make a donation to a charity.
44. Bring homemade food, such as a lasagna or casserole, to a new mom.
45. Teach a child how to ride a bike.
46. Send a care package to your children, friends, or elderly parents.
47. Say "good morning" and "thank you" to public service workers (bus drivers, police officers, mail carriers, and firefighters).
48. Help a friend hunt for a job.
49. Let someone else take your seat on public transportation.
50. Praise the work of others.
51. Share your umbrella with someone who didn't bring one.
52. Help someone carry groceries to the car.
53. Donate books to the local library or bookstore.
54. Volunteer at an animal shelter during adoption events.
55. Sponsor a child in a developing country.
56. Write letters to your former school teachers and tell them how much they influenced you.
57. Offer your seat on a plane so that a family or couple can sit together.
58. Participate in a fund-raiser.
59. Tell your spouse that he or she looks extra handsome or beautiful today.
60. Offer to pick up your friend's children after school.
61. Offer to pet-sit for your friend for free.
62. Sing Christmas Carols at a nursing home.
63. Donate your skills (photography, cooking, crochet, etc.)  -  offer to teach what you know.
64. Offer to run errands for someone who is sick.
65. Send a care package to a soldier.
66. Send a Christmas card to a soldier.
67. Help support small local businesses by shopping with them and offering word of mouth advertising.
68. Rake leaves or shovel snow for your elderly neighbors.
69. Fill up the gas tank or wash the car for your spouse. 
70. Tell the person who is looking for a job when you hear about an opening.
71. Pay for the person’s meal behind you at a drive through restaurant.
72. Leave quarters in a vending machine for the next person to find.
73. Leave any coupons you don’t need on top of the products at the store.
74. Donate old children’s books or toys to a doctor’s office, a shelter, a daycare, etc.
75. Loan a book to someone who you think might like it.
76. Let your spouse sleep in late.
77. Make your spouse breakfast in bed.
78. Take someone’s shopping cart back. 
79. Offer to give someone your cart as they are walking up to the store.
80. Give someone extra vegetables and fruits from your garden.
81. Host a neighborhood party.
82. Leave arcade tickets at various games or give them to a young child before leaving.
83. Leave $1 or $2 in one of the aisles at the dollar store near you.
84. On trash day, take your neighbor’s trash can to the curb for them.
85. Make cereal bird feeders to hang outdoors. 
86. Offer to take your neighbor’s dog for a walk.
87. Take cookies to a fire station to thank the firefighters for their hard work.
88. Walk dogs at an animal shelter.
89. Set up a lemonade stand and donate the profits.
90. Donate food to a food pantry.
91. Tape change to a parking meter.
92. Donate socks and supplies to the homeless shelter.
93. Give a lottery ticket to a stranger.
94. Donate a toy to Toys for Tots.
95. Assemble shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child.
96. Participate in the local Salvation Army Stuff a Stocking Campaign.
97. Donate coloring books and crayons to the children’s hospital.
98. Ask for donations for your favorite charity instead of birthday gifts.
99. Bake a special treat for someone. 
100. Clean up someone else’s mess.
101. Pass on nice hand me downs to someone rather than selling them.
102. Cut the neighbor’s lawn.
103. Invite someone over for a meal.
104. Take someone out for coffee.
105. Invite people who are not visiting their own families to celebrate holidays with your family.
106. Send love letters in your children’s lunches.
107. Send letters to your children, nieces, or nephews (through the mail); children love having mail delivered to their house.
108. Read as many bedtime stories as your children want.
109. Join your children in playing something you don’t normally play with them – jumping on the trampoline, roller skating, etc.
110. Donate baby items (baby wipes, diapers, onesies) to a local crisis nursery.
111. Donate a warm coat, sweaters or jeans to a local homeless shelter.
112. Fill an expired, or about to be expired, parking meter.
113. Leave an encouraging comment on a blog you admire, yet doesn’t regularly get many visitors.
114. Donate your old eyeglasses.
115. Purchase some extra dog or cat food for an animal shelter.
116. Plant a tree.
117. Let someone who has fewer items go in front of you in the checkout line.
118. Promote a friend’s business on social media.
119. Take old blankets, towels, and sheets to the animal shelter.
120. Make blankets or hats to donate to your local charity.
121. Let your kids stay up a bit later even though it’s clearly past their bedtime.
122. Leave change in the “Leave a penny, take a penny” cup.
123. Thank a veteran for his or her service.
124. Collect Box Tops for a local school.
125. Offer to reach something up high for someone who can’t reach it.