Season of giving
My newspaper column
I am unsure when I finally realized that the true joy in Christmas was more about giving than getting.
I have always loved getting presents, so I may have been slower than most of you to understand how much fun it is to put something under the tree for someone else.
But I eventually got it. Even as I get distracted by the crowds at the mall, the Christmas lights that don't light, and the overall stress of the season, the joy of making someone else's day a little brighter carries me through.
I hope the newspaper reflects that, too.
We highlight cool gifts and family traditions. We write about the best places to travel and how to decorate your house. We solicited your wrapping paper designs and Christmas photos. We even interviewed Santa, breaking the news that he no longer delivers coal and switches to kids who have been naughty.
In addition, you may have noticed that much of our coverage has been about doing unto others, and that's no mistake.
Our Life section has featured ways to make the season better for others, either through gifts to charities or listing ways to help you shed your inner Grinch. Each Sunday leading up to Christmas, Lorraine Ahearn has written about the enduring spirit of people who are struggling back from adversity. I hope you read the touching front page story by Lanita Withers Thursday about the man who gave his wife her dream home for Christmas.
Not that our coverage has been without complaints. A feature story on holiday cocktails drew protests from a few readers, who suggested that we did not need to promote alcohol consumption. (We included recipes for non-alcoholic drinks, too.)
Beyond the content of the paper, the News & Record itself puts some muscle behind the idea of giving back to the community. We are a presenting sponsor of Greensboro's Festival of Lights, a weekend long holiday celebration. For the past 80 years, we have been a sponsor of the Empty Stocking Fund, helping to ensure that needy children will get a gift Tuesday morning.
We celebrate the season within the newspaper, too.
This year, the newsroom raised nearly $4,000 for charity through its in-house auction of promotional items sent to us by marketers. Throughout the year, we receive all kinds of products, including books, clothes, toys, consumer items, CDs and DVDs. Three or four times -- whenever the stuff threatens to take over my office -- we sell the items to people inside the building, with all the money going to charity.
The week before last, we held our second annual holiday bake sale in which more than $400 was raised for Urban Ministry.
Last Sunday, the paper was so large that many of our carriers delivered it in two bags. One caller suggested to me that that contributed to the over-commercialization of the season.
I disagree. Aside from the revenue that helps employ 450 people here, the healthy amount of advertising provides people information on where to shop and what to buy. That is a key part of Christmas.
But it doesn't replace -- or it shouldn't replace -- what I've come to believe is the best present of all: letting those you care about know that you care about them.
That is why this piece of advice from last Sunday's Life section rings so true: "Think about the most special thing your parent did for you this year -- and thank them."
I will. And I will thank you for reading us.
Merry Christmas from all of us at the News & Record.