Christmas joy, holiday panic: We’ve all felt it
Christmas is one of those events in life that can become fun again, more fun than ever before, after you have children. An afternoon in the park is another, Halloween, too, to name another holiday.
Just as the joy had seemed to be wrung out of an occasion, when the obligations and the shopping events and the cheap sentimentality and enforced cheer had come to dominate a day that had once been so festive, children can bring back the sense of wonder and magic. Watching their surprise and awe and elation at the old traditions (trimming the tree, unwrapping gifts, visiting Santa) — and bringing that to them — can melt a heart gone cold, and restore the spirit of the season inside you.
But if you’re going through a tough time, financially, suddenly it can seem harder than before, too. A lost job or an unexpected new expense that leaves you short can transform the expected joy into a feeling of frantic desperation.
I know both of these things from experience. I have basked in the reflected glow of my children’s holiday experience. And I have felt the panic — blessedly momentary, in my case — of feeling unable to deliver it. I’m thinking particularly of a time a little less than a decade ago, when bills had been adding up, and a bunch of expected cheques for work long-ago done didn’t arrive. We realized, as Christmas approached, that we didn’t have the money for a tree.
No one ought to feel sorry for me. We had a roof over our heads and food to eat, and my wife and I enjoy endless blessings including strong extended families. We were able to ask for and receive help.
But it was the tiniest glimpse of how the season’s joy can turn to panic with that sudden realization something as small as a tree was beyond our immediate means, bringing the fear that this might somehow ruin the season for our children.
It’s a feeling that is all too familiar — and often less easily escaped — for many Torontonians.
It is also the basis of the plots of many of our most-beloved Christmas stories, from “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” to A Christmas Carol to How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Some situation — brought on by poverty or hardship, often — threatens the joy of Christmas, until someone, often a stranger, steps in to provide some help, and in doing so discovers the bottomless joy that can come from a gift — for both the giver and the recipient.
The Star’s legendary founding publisher, Joseph Atkinson, understood this personally, too. Growing up in poverty, his family could not afford to buy him skates — until a kind woman in the neighbourhood who’d seen him watching the other kids on the pond gave him some as a Christmas gift. Recalling that later in life, from a more privileged position as the Star’s publisher, he founded the Toronto Star Santa Claus Fund to put readers in a position to help children and their families across the city receive gifts every Christmas.
More than a century later, the tradition is strong: This year, the Star will present 45,000 gift boxes to children containing warm winter mitts, tuques and socks, toys, candy and a book. For some who receive them, the boxes will be the only gift under the tree this year.
This is made possible, now as always, by the generosity of Star readers: the fund’s goal this year is to raise $1.7 million to continue this tradition of giving. You, dear reader, can help, with any small donation to extend the joy and magic of Christmas to families that are struggling. You can donate online at the Santa Fund web page.
The fund also depends on the hard work of thousands of volunteers who sort and deliver the gifts. I am told that the opportunity to help immediately exists for readers there too — Barb Mrozek, Director of Toronto Star Charities and Philanthropy, says that the fund needs more delivery volunteers for the upcoming weekends in December between the 8th and the 22nd. “Any hockey teams, big groups, or families willing to help Santa for three to four hours?” she writes in an email. “Email charityinfo@thestar.ca if the answer is yes and we’ll reach out to willing elves.” I have written before about delivering these gifts alongside my children, and what a heartwarming experience it was for them, and for me. It was another opportunity to teach them, and remind myself, that helping to spread joy can be among the greatest sources of joy.
Helping children have a happy holiday is among the most magical elements of the season. The Santa Claus Fund provides readers the chance to join in the merriment through the donation of their time and money. I hope that if you are in a position to help, you consider taking part in this great tradition of giving, and bringing it to new generations of children.
If you have been touched by the Santa Claus Fund or have a story to tell, please email santaclausfund@thestar.ca.