Christmas is a ‘getting stuff’ holiday, but at its most joyful it’s a ‘giving stuff’ one, too

Last week, in preparation for Halloween, my youngest daughter, Mary, was helping me dig through the holiday storage boxes to pull our skeletons and spiders out from among the tree ornaments, maple leaf flags and brightly coloured eggs.

“What’s your favourite holiday?” she asked, naturally enough. She had her top tier already figured out. Easter, Halloween and Christmas, she said. These could be called the “getting stuff” holidays, in her sorting logic, because in addition to the other rituals associated with them, they generally involve a haul of treats or gifts or both.

You can differentiate those “getting stuff” occasions from the “watch fireworks” holidays in May and July — though both of those holidays can also fall into the category of “get out of town” weekends, which also might include the August civic holiday and Labour Day. There’s overlap in the categories, see, like in a Venn diagram: Easter and Christmas are also “eat stuff” holidays, alongside Thanksgiving. Mary is too young to classify Halloween alongside New Year’s Eve and maybe St. Patrick’s Day in the “wild party” category. What is Family Day in February for most people? A “stay warm and hibernate” holiday, I guess.

In any event, of her top three, Mary ranked Halloween above Easter, on account of the costumes. And she ranked Christmas above both the others, because it involved more gatherings and more time off school. And because, she told me, it’s the one that’s also a “giving stuff” holiday.

And that’s the key to what we call the “Christmas spirit,” isn’t it? Not just the getting of gifts, but the giving of them. There is joy in opening a present selected for you — something useful, or fun or funny. But there’s still more in watching someone else open a gift you selected for them, thinking of how it will put a smile on their face or make their life easier or more interesting.

The getting is good. But the giving can be better.

Our Christmas cultural traditions are rooted in and built up by stories that carry this message. A baby born in a stable and lying in a manger, receiving treasures from long-travelling dignitaries, but himself a gift to the world according to the religious tradition. A jolly elf coming down a stranger’s chimney one night at an hour when no creature was stirring, embodying an ethos of unselfish giving. A grumpy, greedy old man suddenly moved by visions of ghosts and the thought of a disabled young boy to generosity — and a sense of euphoria as a result. A weird green creature whose shrivelled heart suddenly multiplies in size, causing him to abandon a great malicious heist in favour of delivering joy to those he’d resented.

The Toronto Star is currently in the middle of its annual Santa Fund campaign, for the 116th year. That tradition is rooted in a story, too. Joseph Atkinson, the founding publisher of the Star, grew up poor — too poor for his mother to afford to give him ice skates. A woman who found him at the park watching the other kids skating, when he told her why he wasn’t on the ice with them, bought him a pair for Christmas.

And in the joy of receiving that gift, the boy who would grow up to be “Holy Joe” — the crusading publisher of the Star — dedicated himself to the idea of passing it on to others. In 1906, he founded the Santa Claus Fund to collect donations from Star readers in order to purchase boxes of small gifts to give to the city’s underprivileged children — kids who might otherwise not find anything under the tree.

All these years later, here at the paper Joe ran, we’re still at it: the enterprise has grown to distribute 50,000 gift boxes — containing a book, a toy, sometimes a snack, and some useful items like toothpaste and warm winter clothes — to children under 12 in Toronto and other cities across the GTA.

In past years I have, with my own children alongside me, joined the army of volunteers delivering these brightly coloured gift boxes to people’s homes. I can still remember the delirious celebration of one particular young child jumping up and down and cheering when we handed over a present. I can remember the sincere gratitude of his mother, standing beside him. And I can tell you I think both were outweighed by the joy we felt in being part of giving that child that feeling and the gratitude we felt for the opportunity to witness it.

You, dear reader, can be part of giving children that feeling, too. The Star covers all the administrative costs of the Santa Claus Fund, but depends on the generous donations of its readers to raise the more than $1.5 million needed to purchase the gifts. Some of that money comes in large bequests or group fundraising efforts of thousands of dollars But plenty of it comes in small donations of $10 or $20. Any donation of $10 or above qualifies for a tax receipt.

It’s a tricky time in the city right now for a lot of people. Coming out of the pandemic, some people have noticed a mood that’s reminiscent of Scrooge or the Grinch. Rents are high, and inflation has made affording things like food and gas harder for many. Depending who you ask, there may be a recession on the horizon. What can any of us do?

We can start by trying to give something to someone else that might make their day a little brighter, something that might bring a smile to a child’s face or make a parent sigh with relief.

In the spirit of the best Christmas traditions, the Santa Claus Fund gives us all an opportunity to give something and from that we get something, too: the joy that comes from knowing we helped.

Edward Keenan is a Toronto-based city columnist for the Star. Reach him via email: ekeenan@thestar.ca

GOAL: $1.5 million

How to donate

With your gift, you can help provide holiday gift boxes that inspire hope and joy to 50,000 underprivileged children.

Online: To donate by Visa, Mastercard or Amex, scan this QR code or use our secure form at thestar.com/santaclausfund

By cheque: Mail to The Toronto Star Santa Claus Fund, One Yonge St., Toronto, ON M5E 1E6

By phone: Call 416-869-4847

The Star does not authorize anyone to solicit on its behalf. Tax receipts will be issued.

To volunteer: scfvolunteer@thestar.ca