A Charitable Christmas

Ever since Atticus got old enough to get excited about presents, I've struggled with how to make Christmas more about giving than receiving. I come up with great ideas in the summer, but once November hits, between end-of-year work escalation and holiday crafting and (often) getting sick, it falls to the wayside.

But this year everything fell into just the right place. The Church's "Light the World" campaign got us thinking about service, and Atticus found little ways to help. He asked to give a dollar to a homeless person and looked forward to putting money in the Salvation Army bucket at the grocery store. My visiting teacher gave us a little manger and straw, where you add straw for every act of service. Atticus wrote notes and left secret gifts for me and James just so he could add some straw.

Plus, our gift requests were inexpensive this year, so we had extra funds in the Christmas savings account. Rather than roll it into next year or to another account (so tempting!), I decided to use it to serve. We made donations to the food bank and the homeless shelter, but I wanted something more tangible as well. So I looked up the list of most-needed items at the shelter and went shopping. Walking out of the store with a cart full of stuff I knew people actually needed, I felt giddier than I had all season. Later we took Atticus to Wal-Mart to pick out toys to donate. He got in the spirit and never once asked for anything for himself. Then we took everything to the shelter. It was fun.

I've decided to make this an annual tradition. When Atticus is older we can help serve meals and interact more with the people we're serving, but for now this is good. And I'd like to do more for our neighbors and friends. And for years I've been wanting to fill shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child, but you have to drop them off before Thanksgiving, so it's not on my radar soon enough. I made a note in my planner to order the shoeboxes in July, so maybe it will happen this year. And Atticus is old enough now to help without getting greedy (man, does that kid love STUFF).

I'm getting excited about the possibilities. And that's the most fun of all.