Our Own Christmas Jar

This year, I read Penny's Christmas Jar Miracle by Jason F. Wright to my students at the beginning of December.


In case you don't know, a Christmas Jar is a jar you put out somewhere in your house, and during the year, you put your spare change in it. At Christmas you give it to a person or family in need.

After reading the story, I was a little shocked at how excited the kids were for the opportunity to do a service project. So, we got a jar, and suddenly, the spare change started rolling in! Soon our first smaller jar was filled and I had to find a larger one. The change just kept coming. I especially loved the comments like, "I was going to buy a pencil/jerky but I thought the Christmas Jar was more important!" and "Can we have an all-year jar and buy things for kids in Africa?"

The last week of school, our counselor came in and gave a lesson on caring. She talked about two seven-year-olds who raised enough money to build much-needed wells in Africa. The kids were so excited to tell her about their Christmas Jar.

Yesterday was our last day of school, and finally the time had come - the jar was full and it needed delivering. While the kids were at PE, I caught up with our counselor, and asked her if she knew of anyone in particular need this season. The tears sprang to her eyes as she whispered, "YES!" She told me of a family at our school who had very little. The adults give all they have to make sure their sweet little girl has what she needs and gets a Christmas. I knew of the family and remembered how downtrodden the adults sometimes seemed to look, but how sweet and joyful the little girl always is. The school had helped provide the girl with a small Christmas, but, the parents still had nothing. Our counselor had been frustrated all day, wondering how else we could help.

She asked if I wanted to help give them the jar, and I said, "No, you can do it, the kids wanted it to be anonymous." We embraced, and the tears flowed freely.

When the students came back from PE, I gathered them around me and told them about the little girl and her family that their Christmas Jar had helped. As I told them about the little girl whose family literally had nothing, I could see the astonished looks on their faces at such suffering in their own school. When I told them about the Christmas Jar, their faces simply lit up! They were so excited and happy to know that their contribution had really helped someone. As I explained to them how proud I was of them, my tears came again. If only we could all be as generous and genuinely caring as these students.

That afternoon, I went out to do traffic duty and I saw the family walking out. The adults didn't know me, but the little girl did and I asked her, "Are you going to have a good Christmas?" As her dad responded jubilantly, "She's already having a great Christmas!" I could see our Christmas Jar nestled safely in his arms. Maybe I just imagined it, but, it seemed that, in some small way, his burden had been lifted, at least for a moment.

I checked in one last time with the counselor before leaving and told her about the students' reaction, and told her that I thought they really understood what this was all about. She said, "You asking me was absolutely inspired. ____ loved getting to give her dad a Christmas present! And yes, your students did get it. That is something they will never forget!" I hope she's right, because I know that I never will.