We hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas! We loved our first Christmas together, even though we had to make numerous trips back and forth from Ogden and Brigham so that we could share this special time with both families. But all in all, Christmas couldn't have been better.
On Christmas Eve we had the opportunity to participate in a Sub for Santa with the Marcheschi family and a few other families in the Forest Green ward. This has become a fun Christmas Eve tradition over the last ten years or so. A family friend provides us with a list of families in inner city Ogden that we help. All the money used is donated from the families participating. Everyone participating gets a slip with the name of a child, along with the child's age, clothing sizes, needs, and wants. We each receive an allotment to shop for our child with. Then it's off to Target - where the magic happens!
While we go around shopping for our kid, the parents shop for groceries, diapers, and those kinds of things as well as presents for the parents of the families.
Lisa and I, along with a friend of ours from the ward, got to shop for a 6-year old boy named Caleb. Lisa had a blast picking out the clothes.
On our slip it said that Caleb is a big fan of some creature named Spongebob Squarepants. You'd be surprised at how many toys are dedicated to such a.....unique and awkward cartoon character. We settled on this box of mini-games like tic tac toe, matching, bingo, and the like.
While shopping for Caleb, the bishop of the ward (who also participates in this with his family) came up to us and said we had more families to provide for. We then had the opportunity to shop for a family of three siblings - a 7 year old girl, a 4 year old girl, and a 2 year old boy. I mostly let Lisa handle the girl stuff.
After loading up our cart with Christmas presents for these four lucky kids, we put the cart in line with all the others and wait while the parents sorted out the insanity. It's about this time each year that I start to feel slightly bad for the poor Target check-out clerk that just happened to be working the aisle to which we all directed our 25+ shopping carts loaded chuck full of stuff. Santa probably gives that individual a little more in the stocking to even things out.
After all that is finished, we head back to the stake center and commence in a massive gift-wrapping extravaganza.
We get enough pizza to feed an army.
These are the gifts we got for one of the little girls we shopped for.
After all the wrapping is finished, we have to make sure they get to the right family. It can get hectic with so many presents, so all the families are color coded to ease this process. After sorting things out, then comes the best part - the delivery! We all caravan to the families' homes and surprise them with their Christmas gifts. I even got to meet this Caleb child I had shopped for, and personally wish him a very Merry Christmas before I ducked out the door and out of his life.
The parents know we're coming, but the kids don't. I like it this way because I love seeing the kids' eyes get wide with excitement. They'd likely been told by their parents that Santa wouldn't be able to come this year, but then all of a sudden they have many presents under their tree with their names on them.
Over the years this Sub for Santa activity has become more and more meaningful to me. In my younger years I saw it as a quicker way to get through the longest day of the year. Christmas Eve always seemed to drag along soooooo slowly, and having this activity take up the majority of the day became a big help. But then I started paying more attention, and was amazed with how much I had been missing. I noticed the happy feeling I had as I imagined the joy this kid would experience as he opened these presents he didn't think were coming. I noticed the tears in the parents' eyes as they were overcome with gratitude for these complete strangers helping them and their family in ways that they were unable to do. I noticed the peace and contentment I felt as I bathed in the warm love of charity and basked in the true meaning of Christmas. This activity once was no more than a necessary distraction on the way to checking off my holiday wish list. But now, Christmas for me would be incomplete without my participation in this very special service.
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