Find someone to give to this holiday season

DECEMBER – What a beautiful month. December is a time for giving, a time for sharing, a time for remembering. December is a good time for cooking all those wonderful dishes from family recipes that have been handed down for generations. Memories are made – never to be forgotten.

Giving and sharing brings pleasure to those who give and happiness – especially to the youngsters when they receive the toys and clothes you may have donated.

If you don’t already have a favorite charity that will receive and deliver your gift, why not consider Toys for Tots.

The impressive history of Toys for Tots is very interesting. For over 70 years Toys for Tots has distributed toys to in-need children whose parents are unable to provide holiday gifts. Major Bill Hendricks and his wife Diane established Toys for Tots in 1947 when Diane could not locate an organization involved in giving Christmas toys to less fortunate children. Diane and Bill did not stop there. They just started their program. That first year Hendricks and his fellow Marines distributed 5,000 toys to local children. After such success in their local community, all Marine Reserve Sites were directed to start a Toys for Tots campaign.

Toys for Tots continues to this day. They distribute an average of 18 million toys to seven million less fortunate children annually. Local communities join in, drop boxes are located conveniently across cities to receive donations from locals. The Toys for Tots program would not be possible without the generous donations of local citizens and business owners. Even Walt Disney who was a friend of Major Hendricks joined the drive when he designed the famous logo of the little three car train featuring a giving Santa Claus.

The Marines begin their toy collections in October, continuing through November and into December. Toys are collected that are suitable for newborn up through 12 years of age. If you have new toys to donate, call Marine Reserves to find the closest collection place, or if you would like for the Marines to do the shopping, a check would also be welcomed. You can also go online to find locations near you – www.toysfortots.org.

Another idea for perhaps a more personal celebration of giving is to organize a Baby Jesus birthday party. What fun that could be with a birthday cake and a manger scene as a party favor for each little child to take home. Special occasions like that build everlasting memories.

Once, an older couple who still wanted to capture that magical feeling of Christmas organized a very special party for the children of their housekeeper. Cake, cookies, and fruit punch along with games and special little gifts made for a festive occasion to be continued year after year. That party brought to all who attended that special feeling that only the gift of sharing brings to all of us.

As this year comes to a close, I wish you a Merry, Merry Christmas form the bottom of my heart! And now for my favorite, time honored saying, “Christmas is coming and the geese are getting fat. Please put a penny in an old man’s hat. If not a penny, a half penny will do. If not a penny, God bless you.”
Merry Christmas!