Added: 01/16/2007 |
The Message Conveyed by Christmas Gifts for ChildrenEvery year the John Wanamaker's Department Store in Philadelphia has had lots of potential Christmas gifts for children. Every year long lines of people have formed outside of that store. Many parents stood in line so that a son or daughter could talk to Santa Clause. On the other side of the continent, in certain California cities, the weather allowed Santa to come to the children.
I remember the year when I had first promised my older son a chance to take part in the Kids Run. The Friday before that scheduled Run, a co-worker asked me about my plans for the weekend. I said to him, “I am going to a marathon.”
My co-workers eyes then widened. He obviously thought that I would be running in a marathon. I then explained to him that I would only be watching the children running in the short race that was to precede the marathon.
Before the start of each Western Hemisphere Marathon, the City of Culver City always had a Kids’ Run. That was a one mile run for children in grades 1 through 5. The children in that Kids’ Run had parents who were willing to wake-up early on the first Sunday morning in December.
The children in that Kids’ Run also had to bring with them one new toy for the firemen’s collection of Christmas gifts for children. On that first Sunday in December, even children who did not attend Sunday school learned the importance of Christmas gifts for children. They witnessed acts that represented the true spirit of Christmas.
In fact, the process of selecting a toy to put in the pile of kids’ Christmas gifts provided me with good reason to sacrifice any added sleep on three Sunday mornings. On three different Saturdays, in three different years, I joined one of my sons as he selected the toy that he would donate to the pile of Christmas gifts for children.
My boys never asked to keep the toy for their own enjoyment. They did not question the idea of collecting in one spot a lot of Christmas gifts for children. In fact, three to four years later, they gave more than gifts to a less-fortunate, local family. They gave that family a decorated Christmas tree.
A lovely decorated tree can bring almost as much happiness as lots of Christmas gifts for children. A lovely decorated tree can give a family a part of the Christmas tradition that it would otherwise do without. I myself had once helped a group of Girl Scouts decorate a Christmas tree in a home for orphaned children.
Our troop did not arrive at that home with an armload of gifts. Instead we brought with us construction paper, glue, string and popcorn. Our troop then spent the afternoon showing the children how to cut the paper into short strips and then use each strip to form the link for a paper chain. Our troop also showed those children how to thread popcorn onto a long string.
Those children thus had a fun afternoon, an afternoon that left them with a decorated Christmas tree. The girls in our troop had the satisfaction of gaining a deeper understanding of the value of the true Christmas spirit. They could see that that spirit managed to exist, independent of a pile of Christmas presents.
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