Making sure the holidays happy for others

MICHELE MARR

I can’t claim to have learned all I needed to know in kindergarten

like author Robert Fulghum but I did receive one of my most stunning

epiphanies about Christmas while I was in second grade.

During lunch one day in December of 1956, as a boisterous gaggle

of school children attempted to one-up each other on what they

expected to get from Santa for Christmas, my closest friend leaned

close to me and confessed, “I’m not getting nothing from Santa for

Christmas. I never do ‘cause my parents can’t afford to pay for any

gifts.”

I was sure that couldn’t be and I told her so. It’s Christmas.

He’s Santa. He gives -- gives -- gifts. Santa get paid? For the

presents he leaves under the tree? Impossible!

“Grow up,” my friend said. “We don’t even have a tree.”

Three years later I got a similar awakening from a fifth-grade

friend. “Christmas is just another old day like any other day in the

year,” she told me. “My old man’s in Sing Sing. How’s he gonna play

Santa Claus?”

“What’s Sing Sing?” I asked.

“The joint. The hoosgow,” she said.

“Prison?” I asked. I’d never known anyone whose father was in

prison.

“Yeah. Prison,” she said.

Twenty-five years later there are still children like my friends

for whom Santa doesn’t come bearing gifts and for whom Christmas is

“just another old day.”

There are adults, too, living alone at home or in nursing home

communities who will receive no visitors or gifts. Some of them live

almost invisibly right here in Huntington Beach.

As we get caught up in the preparations for our own family’s

holidays, whether Hanukkah or Christmas, it can be easy to forget

that there are people in our community who will have a merry

Christmas or happy Hanukkah only if we share ours with them.

In the last few weeks I’ve received calls and e-mails from readers

asking where they might donate holiday food and gifts in Huntington

Beach, so I’ve located some organizations that would be delighted to

receive your gifts to distribute to low-income families, seniors and

the children of prisoners in our city.

Calvary Baptist Church has coordinated an Angel Tree with Charles

Colson’s Prison Fellowship Ministries. The church is collecting

gifts, one wrapped toy and one article of clothing with a total value

of no more than $35, to distribute to the children of prisoners.

The recently established Family Resource Center is collecting food

and toys to distribute low-income families in Huntington Beach.

The Episcopal Service Alliance in Huntington Beach still need

gifts for children, infants through age 15, and food for the holidays

and year-round. They are collecting turkeys and all the other makings

of a Christmas dinner as well as dry-good staples like cereal, tuna

and peanut butter along with hygiene products and diapers (especially

large size 4 and 5 diapers) to meet on-going needs.

Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County is seeking both

individual donations of toys and food as well as organizations to

sponsor food drives, which it is not too late to start.

The Beachside Nursing Center can always use slippers or booties,

lap blankets and shawls for men and women; sugar free candies,

cookies or cakes; soft plush animals or dolls for women and sports or

military-themed items such as bobble-head dolls or extra-large

T-shirts for men.

Senior Santa and Friends, a program of the City of Huntington

Beach Senior Services are collecting gifts, medical equipment and

small appliances for elderly and disabled clients of the Orange

County Social Services and Health Care Agencies who live in

Huntington Beach. Gift certificates for food and other essential

items are personally delivered by social workers for the holidays and

year round.

Suggested gifts for Senior Santa and Friends include: twin-size

bed-in-a-bags, non-skid slipper socks, hand-held shower heads, medium

flannel shirts, boom boxes, backpacks, disposable cleansing cloths,

cordless phones, microwaves, hooded rain ponchos, towel sets, size

medium jackets, nonstick cookware sets, men’s size 10 cotton socks, ladies size seven cotton socks, Orange County Transportation

Authority bus passes, size large nightgowns, stationery with stamps,

fleece throws, size medium sweaters, pill crushers, pillows, Ensure

nutritional drinks, VCRs, flashlights, size medium men’s robes, size

small housedresses, blenders, queen-size blankets and gift

certificates for any grocery store or Walgreen’s, Target, Wal-Mart,

K-mart, Mervyns, Subway, Sav-on and Longs.

For more information on these programs:

Calvary Baptist Church

8281 Garfield Ave.

Angel Tree for Prison Fellowship Ministries

Two gifts, one wrapped toy and one article of clothing with a

total value of no more than $35

For more information about a child and his or her gift wishes,

call Calvary Baptist Church at

962-6860

Prison Fellowship Ministries

www.pfm.org

Family Resource Center

9191 Pioneer Drive

Needs food and toys for local families

For more information, call the Kids Connection at 964-4526 and ask

for Diane Mohn, the Family Resource Center coordinator

Episcopal Service Alliance

525 Main Street

Needs food and gifts for children, infants through age 15

For more information call, 960-2254

Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County

426-A West Almond, Orange

www.feedoc.org

Needs donations of toys and food and organizations to sponsor food

drives

For more information, call Mark Hunt at 771-1343

Beachside Nursing Center

7781 Garfield Ave.

Needs slippers or booties for men and women, lap blankets, shawls,

sugar free candies, cookies or cakes, soft plush animals or dolls for

women, sports-themed items such as bobble-head dolls or extra-large

T-shirts for men

For more information, call 847-9671, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and

ask for Judy or Jennifer

Senior Santa and Friends

City of Huntington Beach Senior Services

Needs unwrapped gifts

Collection boxes are on the Fifth Floor of City Hall and in the

Rodger’s Senior Center lobby from Dec. 1 to Jan. 2