Christmas is all about children. You had better not crush their joy

Adults might be in for a rather pale poor Christmas this year what with three viruses on the rampage, inflation, that damnable supply chain, Toronto going broke, long COVID and everyone’s bad back.

Who cares? I don’t.

Grown-ups, it’s not about you. Christmas is all about children, these remarkably short, unknowingly adorable, unreasonably joyful, dear tiny people whose knowledge of the above is virtually zero if the adults around them have been handling things right.

And for some reason, children LOVE the whole holiday, the presents, some of the over-the-top food, the overloaded tree, the loud, tacky colours, the braying Christmas carols, the foolish sweaters, the winter holiday pageant at school, the way the adults’ grim faces brighten into a big smile whenever they happen across a winter holiday-celebrating, Santa-loving kid.

Sure, it’s a fake smile. I’m pasting one on my face right now.

And I expect you to do the same, Toronto Star readers. You’re pretty much the same readers who awoke to the paper in 1906, the year Joe Atkinson set up the Santa Claus Fund to buy modest gifts for the city’s less privileged children. By that I mean the children WHO MIGHT NOT GET ANY PRESENTS AT ALL.

Imagine the great big adult world out there — I don’t mean your exhausted parents — who made that situation possible. I deplore it in the extreme. I know you do too. There are only a few short years for a small person to keep faith in the joy of every single day — kids are weirdly enthusiastic about the whole 24-hour cycle, aren’t they? — and you had better not crush that. I’m taking notes.

For Toronto Star readers are good, generous people, patient to a fault, who have enough self-knowledge to reach back into childhood memories and recall the Christmases that didn’t go quite as well as they might have. A parent lost a job, another was drinking straight out of a bottle, the house was a confusing place and they felt … unmoored.

If children can’t count on adults, who can they count on? Well, Toronto Star readers. And what presents will readers’ donations purchase? Here’s another weird thing about kids. They’re not as grasping as adults are. You can give a baby a jam jar lid and a stick and they’re good for an hour. Gah, they say. They hit it, they drop it, they wear it as a hat.

Older children are mystifyingly pleased by little cars and “Terminator action figures.” I take it that means dolls. To each his own.

Kevin Donovan, the Star’s chief investigative reporter, did some digging recently. Santa Fund kids are cleaning up.

Apparently the four-year-olds this year are getting a box containing: four jumbo playdough pots; Minions-themed toothbrush plus toothpaste; the Scholastic Canada book “Take Me Out to the Ice Rink”; a warm fleece trapper hat; a grey fleece mitten set; socks; a zip-up hoodie; and a pack of Arrowroot cookies.

According to Donovan, 11-year-olds will get: a paint your own pet rock (either caterpillar, turtle, frog or fox); 2-in-1 Kids Strawberry toothpaste; a Scholastic Canada “Dragon Masters” series book, either “Forest of the Stone Dragon” or “Howl of the Wind Dragon”; an apple or strawberry box of eight cereal bars; a grey beanie and mitten set; socks; and a zip-up hoodie.

Thanks, Kevin. It’s better than anything I’m getting this year and that’s as it should be.

A lot of these kids have next to nothing. You see the pattern of those gift boxes? On Christmas Day, Santa Fund kids will be warm, fed and entertained.

I cannot tell you how much your heart will swell with love when you send a donation, big or small, to the Toronto Star’s Santa Claus Fund. Of, you know, your secret moral lapse this year, you can say, “But I also made a sad child’s Christmas morning shine like the brightest, warmest star!”

And you know what? You’ll be right. The cops will give you a pass on your little mistake. Tell them I said so. I’m always right about these things.

Heather Mallick is a Toronto-based columnist covering current affairs for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @HeatherMallick

GOAL: $1.5 million

TO DATE: $619,693.00

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