World Beginnings

Americans spent more than three trillion dollars on Christmas in 2013, https://www.statista.com/topics/991/us-christmas-season/ ,  parents expect to spend $271 per child and one in ten plan to spend over $500 per child. Then the children play in the boxes. This does not include the cost of elaborate trees and outdoor decorations. I live in a Mexican village that exists on servicing the expats who live here and some farm or fish. Most live on less than $500 per month and the average family size is four; however, the families I know personally have six family members.  Most people live in extended family units, which is the only way they can get by. Last year I taught conversational English to a group of teens ranging in age from sixteen to twenty. As Christmas approached we talked about their traditions which centered around family. Their faces glowed as they talked about singing, dancing and eating tamales with their extended families.  And of course the piñ...

Long ago, my first volunteer job was at a telephone crisis center in Jackson, MS. At Christmas, the director hosted a party for the volunteers and he quietly circulated among us asking different people if they believed in Santa Claus. Later in the evening he addressed the group and spoke about his question. He said those who believed in Santa were the ones with hope. I still think about this. During the same time period I worked for the Mississippi branch of the AMA, American Medical Association,  and one year a group of us decided that we should adopt a family from the Salvation Army Christmas Tree and we did. We brought gifts to a young single mother and her toddler child. But the next year the office decided we wanted to do something BIG. I volunteered to go out and interview the family the Salvation Army gave us. We interviewed a couple of possibilities but they didn’t inspire us. So we asked for another one. We never called ahead, most of the people didn’t have pho...