December 25th, 2007. A blurred memory I remember vaguely. Waking up in the morning, snow falling briskly from the sky. Stockings hung on the fireplace full of gifts and candy. The bottom of the tree was stacked full of presents.

A moment of that fuzzy, warm, ooey gooey feeling shot through my stomach.  I loved Christmas. I began to think, as thoughts shuffled through my brain. The logic that many children didn’t get to have a Christmas hurt my heart.

I was a young child and didn’t grasp the whole concept but it made me feel nauseous.  I began thinking of all the times I was selfish, complaining about what I had gotten and that my sister received more than me. The concept that some children had never even received a present made me feel remorseful.

My six year old self sat on the couch at five thirty in the morning thinking of ways to help children who weren’t as fortunate as me. After reflecting upon my thinking I had decided to approach my parents about giving something to those children.  

I woke my parents at eight thirty as usual on a Christmas morning but this year I didn’t wake them with excitement.

I scampered into my parents room and launched my tiny body on their bed with pity.

“What’s wrong?” my parents announce simultaneously.

“I’m agitated,” I exclaim. “I am such a brat. Did you know some kids don’t even get to have a Christmas? How could someone not get presents?” I keep rambling on for a good couple minutes when my dad stops me in mid sentence.

“Well what do you think we should do for these other kids?”

I sit there for what feels like a eternity.

“We should go buy them presents too!” I reply with so much excitement.

My mom and dad laugh, trying to be nice then they explain to me that we don’t have enough money to buy other kids presents as well. I could feel my face start to get warm as I felt so bad for them. How could I be so spoiled while some are left with nothing.

“Do you know what you could do?” my mother says.

“What?” I reply with very fast.

“You could pick one of your presents and meghan can pick one of hers and we can rewrap them and give them to little girls just like you guys who don’t get presents.”

I got so happy I started dancing around at that point I realized my sister wasn’t to thrilled about the idea.

We had continued on with our Christmas festivities and opened all the presents. I loved all my presents so much I began to rethink my decision. At this point my sister had choose to give her new sweat outfit so a little girl in need could have new warm clothes. I still couldn’t choose I liked all my presents so much it was hard to pick.

Finally, I chose to give them my new fuzzy blanket. It came with a matching stuffed animal. They were elephants and I LOVED them, so I was convinced that whoever got this present was sure to be happy.

Throughout Christmas dinner I couldn’t stop talking about it. I was so excited I would be helping someone else and making them a memory they would never forget.

Two days later we took the presents to our church where they would find a family for these gifts. I felt so good to be sharing Christmas with a friend, and began thinking how happy I was going to make them.

Every year after this one we decided to choose a person off the tree at our church, It was an angel tree. This card would tell us the gender age and what this kid may like. My mom, sister, and I would spend a day picking out gifts for the couple of kids we had chose, wrapping them, making dinner together and returning them to the tree. It became a tradition and one of which I am very proud of.

All in all Christmas has been my favorite holiday since I was little. Not only because it's Christmas, but it's a time of year where it's more important to give than receive. That makes me feel compassionate.