World Beginnings

Americans spent over three trillion dollars on Christmas in 2013 (https://www.statista.com/topics/991/us-christmas-season/). Parents expected to spend an average of $271 per child, with one in ten planning to spend over $500 per child. Ironically, after all that spending, children often end up playing with the boxes instead of the gifts. These figures don’t even include the cost of elaborate trees and outdoor decorations. I live in a Mexican village where many residents make a living by servicing the expats who reside here, or by farming and fishing. Most families survive on less than $500 per month, with the average family size being four. However, the families I know personally often have six members. Extended family units are common, as pooling resources is often the only way to get by. Last year, I taught conversational English to a group of teens aged sixteen to twenty. As Christmas approached, we discussed their traditions, which revolved around family. Their faces lit up as...

Years ago, my first volunteer job was at a telephone crisis center in Jackson, Mississippi. During Christmas, the director hosted a party for the volunteers and quietly mingled, asking each of us if we believed in Santa Claus. Later that evening, he addressed the group and reflected on his question. He explained that those who believed in Santa were the ones who still had hope. I often think back on his words. Around the same time, I worked for the Mississippi branch of the American Medical Association (AMA). One year, a group of us decided to adopt a family from the Salvation Army Christmas Tree, and we brought gifts to a young single mother and her toddler. The next year, the office wanted to do something bigger. I volunteered to visit the family the Salvation Army matched us with. After meeting a couple of families who didn’t move us, we requested another. We never called ahead—most people didn’t have phones anyway—because we wanted to see the “real family.” What happened next ch...