I've heard of someone paying off layaways. At my office, we used to send someone to grab wishes off Angel Trees at local malls, it was sad so many of them just wanted clothing. sad to see a kid write "I want sox, size 9" rather than wanting a special toy.

I've been hearing about the person paying off layaways at Kmart. And I've been thinking what a kind and generous thing that is to do. Today I read an article with more info about it and I'm wondering if I'm now a Scrooge or what.

The kind and generous person paid off someone's bill for $200 worth of toys for their 4 year old. Really?? That doesn't seem quite right to me - that you'd spend that much money on a 4 year old if you had financial constraints - which presumably is the case if you're using layaway. It's always possible the article wasn't quite right and it was $200 for all the person's Christmas gifts which doesn't sound nearly as extravagant.

When I was a kid our parents didn't promote the Santa fantasy because we couldn't afford a lot of gifts and they didn't want us thinking that some how we'd magically get all the gifts we wanted. Never the less we were always excited and delighted with whatever few things we got. I cherished the toys I got and played with them for years.

My parents had a lot of challenges (which didn't make for the greatest childhood for me) but I give them so much credit for how they handled things like this. I'm eternally grateful that I was raised to understand that if I wanted a better life for myself, that I would have to take personal responsibility for making that happen.

It seems like some people are bitter that others have "more" but think it's someone else's fault that is the case. I guess that has probably always been true but you sure seem to hear a lot about that kind of thinking today. Maybe it's because of the economic challenges but sometimes I think it's because there's a generation of kids whose parents have tried to protect them too much from life's difficulties and disappointments. I found those experiences inspired me and made me stronger. Maybe they also made me a Scrooge.

Assuming I could afford to do that, I would want to know in advance that the person was indeed needy. Maybe they were laying away the gifts so the kids wouldn't find them before Christmas. I am a skeptical Scrooge.

There was a clip on TV last night about this.

I did have to wonder about some of the things the above posters mentioned.

I may have a few drops of Scrooge blood.

Sue

I heard one last night where a guy went to a store (not Kmart) and just paid the one where people were late on their payments. I think it's a very nice thing to do.

I heard on the radio this morning there was a giver like that in Omaha this week.

She paid for three peoples layaways and gave the employees of the store 50 dollars.

Made me wonder if I knew anyone that I could help a little. I couldn't afford to pay off anyones layaway..but maybe something.

I remember one year we had friends who's two kids were not getting anything for Christmas. Denny and I went shopping, had a lot of fun doing it. Wrapped it and took it over, knocked on the door and hid till we saw them come to the door and find the bags on the porch. Never did tell them it was us.

We have a program here in our local newspaper called "Newspaper with a Heart" The program helps people who have had major tradegies due to illness, family situations and most of the time haven't gotten through the paperwork to get help from other sources. They do things like paying a months rent or fixing a house up to be handicapped ready or providing car repairs so that transportation is available for someone who needs it to get to doctor's appts or work. Anyway, when I was teaching kindergarten, my class would adopt one of the families and usually there were several children involved. My kids would bring in their pennies, nickles, and dimes and we would go shopping at the small strip mall near our school. We would make lists of items we might be able to buy and check ads to see the prices. Then we would have the 5th graders help us count the money and put it in the paper rolls, and off we would go shopping. Our school was a lower middle class school and had plenty of needy families of our own - they were always helped by our PTA and staff so this was different. The kids helped to wrap the small presents like crayons, coloring books, hair bows, little cars, etc. The lady from the newspaper came out when we were shopping and wrapping and took pictures and included us in an article about the meaning of giving from our hearts. I think the kids really learned an important lesson each year I did this.

The only problem I encountered other than taking 30 kindergartners to Wal-Mart was one little guy went overboard and brought in the bag of money that his mom had from a fund raiser (she was the treasurer)from her older son's high school band! She had it out on the table to take to the bank after she dropped him off at school. I had to tell him that wasn't his money to give away - he told me the big kids wouldn't mind - they didn't need toys for Christmas!