(Photo Illustration Editor's Notes Alt - Christmas - MetroCreativeConnection)

Though we are well into December, now, the glow of a couple of wonderful Thanksgiving meals spent with family is sticking with me. Though the faces around the table have been changing more than any of us would have hoped over the past few years, it is as important as ever to spend a little time together — carrying out generations-old traditions while we talk about all that is changing.

One thing that never changes is the inevitable “So … what’s on your Christmas list?” to family members of all ages. Answers ranged from grocery store gift cards to a SpongeBob SquarePants video game. Older relatives mentioned practical things that were just a little outside of “necessary,” and therefore felt worth mentioning as gifts. Younger ones let fly with genuine wants, rather than needs.

But my family isn’t the only one with a pack of kids dreaming of a magical Christmas. Mine is fortunate enough to be able to (mostly) fulfill those dreams. Yours might be, too.

Others need a little help putting something special under the tree this year. Their kids have lists, too. And if you take a look at those on the Angel Tree tags available all over the Mid-Ohio Valley, you’ll find those lists include wants AND needs.

Please consider being the person who gives Santa a hand with those lists.

My dad made it a point, a looong time ago, to work with the Salvation Army at Christmastime as part of our family tradition. Plop a few coins in the red kettles. Every time. Grab an Angel Tree tag or three. Check after the deadline to find out whether there are still needs to be met, tags that did not get grabbed.

And make sure the youngest family members are involved. One year, he even wrapped up a little certificate for each of the youngest in the family, which told them that, because of them, Santa had also been able to give a few extra gifts to a young person whose holiday haul was not overflowing into the next room.

Not one of them grumped about that meaning they might have received less. In fact, at least one — older and wiser now, if you ask him — annually demands that we go grab tags.

There is still just a little time this weekend, to get tags and do your shopping for some Angel Tree kids before the deadline to turn in the unwrapped gifts.

I encourage you to do so. Watching others open gifts will feel even better if you know there’s also someone you can’t see who is having a merrier Christmas because of you.

And don’t stop there. If you have the means, there are plenty of other organizations that can give you ways to feed families, give them warmer clothing and provide a few toys.

Do what you can.

There are a variety of reasons the need is greater this year at the same time fewer people feel as though they have enough to spare to help someone else. There are plenty of people who have enough to get by — and JUST enough for a little extra to celebrate the holidays — but after that, they are tapped out.

But there are also plenty in this valley who have not just enough, but plenty. Many likely got a reminder of that as they counted their blessings over Thanksgiving.

You might not be bringing joy to the whole world (that’s someone else’s job this season, anyway), but you can bring it into one family’s world.

The window to do so is shrinking. Take advantage of the options still available to you, and go find out for yourself just how much greater it is to give than to receive.

Christina Myer is executive editor of The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. She can be reached via e-mail at cmyer@newsandsentinel.com.