Haircuts, baseball bats, board games, and clothes. These are all frequent things that pop up as gifts in the holiday season for the children in our community. And every year before the holidays, special little trees appears outside of the chapel. The Giving Tree, in case you aren’t aware, is an amazing opportunity to give back to the families in our community during Christmas. The little tree  is full of tags with requests for different toys, clothes or anything they need for different kids in the community whose families are unable to give them everything they want, even if what they want is a  bottle of shampoo.

To participate, all you have to do is take a tag, go to your favorite superstore (like Target or Walmart), pick up what the tag is requesting and bring it back to Xavier. Super simple, right? You don’t even have to wrap it! It’s so easy and is one of the best gifts you can give this year.

In year’s past, The Giving Tree has had some bumps in the road. No one, including myself, paid much attention to it until a teacher of mine gave us the opportunity to leave class and look at the trees. Even after that, people still didn’t take tags or took them and forgot to purchase a gift, which is worse than not taking one at all.

The gifts are never too expensive. I know I took multiple tags last year and my total at the end was still under $60. Skip the dinner date this week and spend that money on someone else.

While I realize I’m a huge gift giver, I understand that not everyone is. But these gifts are so easy to give, and you don’t even have to think about what to buy. These are things they want and will adore for  the rest of the year. These gifts could make their Christmas the best yet.

For example, this year an 11-year- old boy wished for a book, an 18-year -old girl just wanted some socks, and a single mom wanted some clothes.

We often take these things for granted, but now we have a chance to give back and realize we are blessed.

Currently, there are still tags on The Giving Tree. If you haven’t already taken a tag, maybe you can get a 12-year-old boy pants, a dad a plain white t-shirt, or a 16-year-old girl some make-up.

GIVE BACK. The Giving Tree is important and special to the community, and it’s easy to participate. Please give back this Christmas.