Christmas is a time of giving.

And, although New York has ranked, according to a Gallup Poll, among the least charitable of the 50 states (Utah, with many Mormons who donate 10 percent of their income to the church, ranks as the most charitable), our state’s Department of Taxation and Finance this time of year distributes tips on year-end contributions.

“Charitable giving empowers you to help the very people and organizations you want to assist or support — and those needed contributions generally will help you lower your tax bill, too,” says Commissioner Jerry Boone in a release from the tax department.

The tips tell potential donors all contributions must be made to a qualified charity, the donor must get a written statement from the charity, and the contribution must be claimed in the right year.

Even cast-offs — “certain household items and clothing...as long as those items are in good used condition” — can qualify for a write-off.

We’d like to think that generous people give from their hearts and not as part of a calculated move to reduce their tax bills. We loved it when a colleague recently told those in our newsroom about sending shoe boxes filled with gifts to children in Third World countries, and then another colleague spontaneously went out shopping to donate a shoebox overflowing with treats. No receipts were issued or filed away to enter at tax time.

But we get it. Organizations big and small depend on their not-for-profit status to encourage the donations that keep them alive and doing their good and often necessary works. Particularly in these tough times, with cutbacks of many government services once seen as essential, the not-for-profits are called on to fill in the gaps — to feed the hungry, to clothe the tattered, to shelter the homeless.

Many other not-for-profits provide the things that are essential, if not for the human body for the human spirit — music, art, poetry.

So, we don’t begrudge the means that spur modern generosity. In fact, we applaud last Friday’s vote in Congress that gives tax incentives to those supporting land conservation. Part of the America Gives More Act, the incentive was packaged with others to encourage donations to food banks, for example, and to make charitable deductions easier from individual retirement accounts.

Rare these days, the vote was bipartisan: The House of Representatives voted 318 to 109, and the Senate voted 65 to 33 to pass bills including the incentive.

When property owners sign a conservation easement with a land trust, agreeing to limit use of the land to protect it from development, those property owners are giving up the potential worth of their land. They deserve some compensation. Few conservancy groups could afford to buy outright the lands that would best be protected.

The properties protected by an easement can be used for specified purposes like farming or hunting or other recreational uses. They strengthen economies not just because they remain on the tax rolls but also because, depending on the purpose, they often attract tourists.

The bill, once signed into law, will be applied retroactively to Jan. 1, 2015. The measure was first a temporary provision, enacted nine years ago, and was responsible for conserving more than two million acres across our nation.

We can see, right here in our midst, the effect conservation easements have had. Just one example is the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy’s work to acquire conservation easements to create a 3,000-acre corridor of preserved land from New Scotland into John Boyd Thacher State Park.

“We are trying to build a corridor of protected land,” Mark King, executive director of the conservancy, told us in April.

Margaret Craven Snowden called the easement “a miracle,” allowing her to fulfill her long-held dream of preserving the land she loves at the base of the Helderberg escarpment. On the other side of the corridor, Craven Snowden’s property touches Indian Ladder Farms, for which the conservancy also holds a preservation easement.

Hundreds and hundreds of people flock to Indian Ladder Farms each fall to connect with nature and get a sense of how food is produced. City and suburban kids are amazed at baby animals that were once everyday sights for earlier generations of Americans.

But, aside from the edification of humans, the boost to the local economy, and the sheer beauty that easements provide, they are also good for the natural world. Protected corridors provide pathways for animals to roam and allow ecosystem to survive and even flourish unimpeded by human interference.

That is the sort of miracle that modern-day wise men — in a world of crushing humanity, blithely trashing the natural world — might see as a beacon. Such easements are gifts as precious as gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

— Melissa Hale-Spencer