The Goose is Getting Fat

I recently attended the holiday concert starring our second-grade granddaughter, the lovely Madelyn Simone, along with two hundred of her best friends from second and fifth grade. The children sang with both enthusiasm and skill, and their repertoire even included the arrangement of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” by the Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen, complete with choreography.

At the conclusion of the musical program, the children made presentations to the charities they supported this year. The fifth grade raised dollars for Pegasus Farms, a therapeutic equestrian program, and younger children supported the Saint Baldrick Foundation, which funds children’s cancer research. Not only did the school raise over $5000 for their designated projects, but one of the students announced that he’ll soon be shaving his head in support of the St. Baldrick project. That’s commitment.

Experts say that about 18% of all charitable giving is made in December, driven in part by “the holiday spirit,” as well as by the desire of some donors to make a last-minute tax-deductible gift. Inspired in part by the gift-giving of the Magi in the nativity narrative, people of faith often ask themselves the question that Christina Rossetti posed in her nineteenth-century poem, “In the Bleak Midwinter.” “What shall I give him [Jesus], poor as I am, what shall I give him, child that I am?” One answer to that question is by making a gift to someone who is “less fortunate” than the donor, immortalized by the gift Scrooge makes to Tiny Tim’s family in Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol.”

This seasonal gift-giving practice was even a part of a children’s nursery rhyme. “Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat. Please put a penny in the old man’s hat.” A second rhyme, a more obscure one that I’ve fondly re-named “The Kettle Worker Song,” urges a donation to the shivering poor with these memorable words: “Hold, men, hold, we are very cold. Inside and outside, we are very cold. If you don’t give us silver, then give us gold . . .“

The Salvation Army has traditionally rung its shiny bell during the Christmas season, calling its hearers to contribute their loose change and dollar bills to the beckoning kettle. Its pleading voice is echoed in a vast range of charitable choices. I remember the colorful Christmas Seals that we’d add to our cards, indicative of our family’s donation to the American Lung Association. My childhood church sponsored a White Christmas drive, when we’d bring gifts so Miss Mager could deliver them to a poor community in Appalachia.

One creative fund-raising opportunity is a Polar Bear Dip and Dash. A classic one is held in Portland, Maine, where participants are urged to “be bold in the cold” with a 5k and subsequent plunge into the icy Atlantic Ocean on December 31^st to raise funds to combat climate change. That’s taking the “we are very cold” poem to another level. My neighbor Kaitlynn is raising funds this month to combat human trafficking by wearing a dress every day during Dressember, “embracing the freedom that I’m allowed, on behalf of those who aren’t free to live vibrant, autonomous lives.” Hers is a chilly choice as well.

With all the charitable choices that beckon us in December, we must not forget that our community is in the final days of its 2018 United Way campaign. Delivering a frozen turkey to a poor family on Christmas Eve might sound like a good idea, but those with inadequate resources need more comprehensive support throughout the year, and that’s what Ashland County’s United Way partner agencies provide every day of the year.

As the sacred word reminds us, “It is more blessed to give than receive.” When our own “goose is getting fat,” we have the ability to bless others with our charitable giving. Many of us have the luxury to write a check as we sit in front of the fireplace, but some of our neighbors still shiver in the cold of poverty, illness, and despair. As we are both generous and wise in our giving, we can make a difference, even on days like today when “baby, it’s cold outside.”