Author: Nancy Canwell. She learned a lesson from her 3 year old daughter – one that most of us have a hard time remembering at Christmas.

Tonight I pulled out our family’s photo album to remember Christmas past. The pictures of Christmas 1996 when our daughter was three years old are priceless to me. There she is plahing a wise man in our church’s Nativity play. Across the page are pictures of her with little friends singing carols at a retirement home and watching our town’s light parade. In others she’s enjoying the many activities I’d planned for our family that season. Yet the picture that means the most to me is the one of her standing by our Christmas tree, holding bags of food. The picture means so much because it represents Christina’s plan for that Christmas, not mine.

That year, as I was cleaning in a back room of our house, I realized that for a three-year-old she was being much too quiet. When I walked into the kitchen I saw why. She’d gotten into the pantry and was busily filling brown papers bags with food.

“Christina, what are you doing?” I asked.

“I want to give hungry people food for Christmas!” she declared.

My heart was touched. She was reminding me of what really mattered at Christmas. It was not just about decorating, baking, shopping, or all the events. It was about sharing.

It would have been so easy to let that moment pass by saying, “Hone, I don’t have time for this right now, ” or “I need these things for our own meals.” But I knew I couldn’t. Now both our hands were in the pantry as I let her choose what to give.

On Christmas Eve my husband drove us around town because Christina wanted to chose which houses to leave the bags at. “That house!” she said, pointing to one that looked run-down. “That house has kids,” she said of another with toys in the yard. So we wouldn’t get caught, I ran the bags to the porches while Christina watched from the car with glee.

On the way home she imagine how excited people would be when they awakened Christmas morning to find food on their doorstep. I wasn’t so sure. Would people take food left by strangers? But when I realized that’s not what really mattered. What mattered was that we’d shared. What mattered was that our daughter had celebrated Christmas her way.

I will end the copying here and end the story this way. I feel this is a touching story and I post it here to share. Such a lovely child with a great Christmas thought.