Giving Tree Is What Christmas Is All About

Our daughter Tricia had pneumonia during the holidays last year, making 2010 the "worst Christmas ever" (my term) in her then-13 years of existence. At the dinner table the other night, she was lamenting that the Christmas spirit has been slow to catch fire so far this year, too.

Not so for me, thankfully, and I think some of that has to do with the Giving Tree.

Each year, quietly and inauspiciously asks church members to do a couple of things: take a paper ornament or two from the small artificial tree in the narthex, then puchase the item that's written on it.

Paula and I and the kids have been participating in this for a number of years now. Paula does the yeoman's work in our family, of course, visiting the church before and after masses for a couple weeks, making sure the tree is full of ornaments, fielding questions and phone calls, helping co-chairs Lisa and Mike Cooper and others coordinate delivery to the various charity organizations that receive the gifts.

I'm like the kid in old Shake N Bake commercial who proudly proclaims, "And I helped!"

But it still makes me feel good, for a number of reasons.

First, you can't help but be affected seeing people's generosity in physical form. It's a little like the last scene of It's a Wonderful Life when people start throwing piles of money on the table. There are hundreds and hundreds of gifts under the Giving Tree—and you know that more than a few of them are coming from people who don't have all that much themselves, or have less than they did a year ago.

Second, the volunteerism that goes into this and pretty much any religious organization, warms your heart. I wish I could report on all of them. I wish more people would post announcements here on Patch to tell all the good things people are doing in Geneva, year round.

Third, the agencies that receive these gifts—men's socks, women's gloves, toothpaste and toys, diapers and dolls—are always so grateful. The need at Hesed House, Provena Care Center, Elgin Mental Health Center, Fox Valley Pregnancy Center, Catholic Charities, VNA of Fox Valley and others is great and growing, as is their gratitude for even the smallest items the Giving Tree provides.

This time of year, I love the holiday decorations and Christmas music on the radio and cards in the mailbox, and I wouldn't mind a little more snow (operative word "little") to make the season bright.

But as I was trying to tell Tricia—clumsily, as all parents do at one time or another—the trappings and traditions are wonderful, but the "Christmas spirit" has to come from inside.

There are many Giving Trees in Geneva, St. Peter's is just a single example.

Find one.

Because that's what Christmas is all about.