Go Tell It On The Mountain

It may seem at first that this photo and the title of this post don't go together but I think they do if you look a little closer. In researching the origins of Santa, or St. Nick, the general consensus is that he got his start giving small gifts to poor children who lived in the villages surrounding his church. Now, I know there are multitudes of other cultural influences in Santa but that's the main historical basis.
Anyhoo, with December 26 being the second day of Christmas, I thought he was appropriate because this is the day to give to the poor and our public servants such as postal workers, utility workers, household help and such. In many parts of the world this is referred to as Boxing Day due to the tradition of giving Christmas "boxes" to these people. I always wondered about that term myself!
So, today I would encourage you to give to the charity of your choice and any of the others you feel you can. Even if you don't care to give to a religious organization there are many secular charities that do wonderful work, the only stipulation is that it must be to help the poor, not an environmental or other such cause (that comes later). I will not go into details about what I choose to do because I don't think we are supposed to boast in any way of our giving, but I will say that this organization is one of my favorites and I believe they do good work.
Today would also be a good day to clean out some of the rooms of our house and donate decent items to Goodwill or any similar groups. We know we all have way too much stuff we don't use that some one else could really profit from. We should also take this day to reflect on how blessed we are in this country and even those of smaller means among us have so much more than many people. Even though I'm out of work for so long, in many parts I would still be considered immensely wealthy, and I am.

*various artists