One of the nicest ways to teach children the true meaning of Christmas is to sponsor a needy family; provide gifts and a food basket to help a family in need enjoy Christmas day, too. Do it alone or get your siblings, parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, together for a day of wrapping, decorating and packaging up Christmas for a family who is going through a rough patch in their life. It is amazing what a good feeling one gets from helping out someone less fortunate.

You can contact the Red Cross or your local church or civic organizations to get information on families available to sponsor. They will tell you the ages and sex of the members of the family and the sizes of their clothing. Sometimes they add in notes about each member like: mom loves to cook; dad enjoys reading books about the Civil War; sonny enjoys robots and sis loves Barbie dolls. These are hints to help you pick out presents that will end up under the tree for your needy family.

If no one wants to join in on the fun of helping or if your family lives far away, you can ask your friends to see if they would like to join with you in this endeavor. But, even if you are alone, just your nuclear family, you can still help to make the holiday special for someone else.

Start by figuring out your budget and divide by how many people there are in your sponsored family. Presents don't have to be expensive to be appreciated. Knitted scarves are good for any family member; books can be bought second hand; eBay, garage sales and half.com offer breaks on CDs, DVDs and other items. Everyone loves candy so each gift package can contain a small bag of candies. Find out if your family has a pet and if they do include dog biscuits or a cat toy for the four legged family members.

Even though it's obvious that your disadvantaged family needs to receive practical gifts, it's important also to give them a feeling of a treat too. Try to enclose something luxurious, like a special hand cream with the practical gift of knit gloves for example or a can of cashew nuts with the socks you bought for the dad of the family.

Once you have your presents selected, think about the food basket you will make. Turkeys are sold at one of the lowest prices of the year right around Thanksgiving, so get a turkey then and freeze it. Now all you need is some canned goods like sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, wax beans, fruit cocktail or corn, and something sweet like cookies or chocolates. A small check to the church or civic organization will cover the purchase of fresh produce like potatoes and onions which will be added to the baskets on the day they are delivered.

Even the little members of your family will enjoy buying gifts, helping to wrap them and delivering them to the charity of your choice. And, when you wake up Christmas morning, you'll have an extra warm glow realizing that somewhere nearby, a family is waking up to a nice Christmas that you helped create.

Learn more about this author, Tierney O'Hara.
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