No Christmas?

At our office, we draw names off the Salvation Army Angel Tree instead of buying each other gifts. Some people still buy gifts for each other, which makes it awkward, but anyway, back to the point - this is our way of giving Christmas to people who don't have it otherwise.

So this morning, I asked my son if he would help me shop for our angel. Since my boss is out of town until Friday, I drew a name for him, too. So I had a 5 year old boy or 3 year old girl to shop for. My son suggested we pick the boy.

But he was confused by why we were buying gifts for someone we didn't even know. I explained to him that some children don't get to have Christmas because they don't have money or their parents don't have jobs, or they are sick or something, so we were trying to help them. He sat quietly, then this ensued:

Him: "No Christmas? Really? That would be so sad."

Me: "Yes it would be. Can you imagine everyone getting gifts except for you?"

Him: "Do they have toys? We could get them toys."

Me: "Well, we're just supposed to get them clothes. Someone else does the toys."

Him: "I have like 100 toys. Maybe we could pick some out and send them to kids without any. Just not my Transformers."

Me: "That would be very nice."

Him: "And maybe we could pack up Elmo and send him away, because he's really loud and annoying. Maybe another kid besides my sister will play with him."

Nice try, buddy. :) But at least he got it - which is more than I expected. Kids these days get pretty wrapped up in the receiving end of Christmas. I remember last year, when all the gifts were opened, he said "Is that all?" So him being able to realize that some kids don't get anything was a real wake up call - one that I hope carries through Christmas. We'll head out to shop for little "Payton" soon and I have a hunch that my son will be leading the way.