A few weeks ago, I wrote about Marilyn Assaf’s 2006 Christmas. She had been going through some particularly challenging life experiences last fall and it was difficult for her to keep a smile on her face, but her friend Joy Brown found a way to make that happen.

On each of the Twelve Days of Christmas, she secretly left a gift for Marilyn, and then revealed herself on Christmas Eve, the twelfth day.

I’ve thought about this series of gifts often over the past few weeks. It has to be one of the most wonderful gifts of friendship I have ever been told.

Marilyn’s story made me think of other Christmas gifts, traditions and stories I’ve written about over the years

Brenda Aubin’s story is one more parents should hear.

In short, each week her parents would give the kids 50 cents allowance and then each of them would drop 10 cents into a special "Christmas Box" while their parents added $5. The money was used the next year to prepare a Christmas hamper for a needy family.

The important point of this story is that her parents didn’t just hold back ten cents. The allowance (50 cents) was always given in small change so that each of the kids got to put their own money in the pot and in the process, learn that small weekly contributions can make a big difference.

When Allyx Williams was three years old, she saw her parents preparing three Christmas baskets for needy families and asked what they were doing. When they told her, she quietly went to her room, opened her piggy bank and separated money into three packages, one for each basket.

After that she got three additional piggy banks so she had one for herself to spend, one for gifts for friends and family, one for her education, and one for the “hungry kids.”

Having done that now for many years, Allyx definitely knows that small things done regularly can make a big difference, and that’s a great lesson for not only kids learn but all of us adults too.

The story that’s closest to my heart involves my Aunt Hazel, a woman I loved hugely. When she was seven years old, back around 1915, she went to town with her dad, just the two of them, and she got to go into the general store with him.

When all eleven kids were in tow, they weren’t allowed inside in case one of them would break something and my grandparents couldn’t afford to take that chance.

Sixty years later when she told me this story, her eyes still glistened as she relived the excitement of walking into that store for this first time and seeing all of the colourful ribbons, barrettes, candy, fancy scarves, blouses, dresses ... and bananas. She'd never seen a banana before.

Then, as they paid their bill and prepared to leave, she couldn't believe what happened -- The storekeeper gave her an orange.

She'd seen oranges before but she'd never actually touched one, none of her siblings had either. The family couldn't afford such luxuries.

“I couldn’t wait,” she told me, “to get home and share it with my brothers and sisters.”

Now that’s true Christmas spirit.