My favorite Christmas event is the Tree of Joy gift distribution. My mom has been coordinating (or co-coordinating in the earlier years) our community Tree of Joy for the past three or four years. She is the library director, so we use the library as our gift distribution site. Mid-December we fill the back meeting room with gifts for families in need. We get to shop for all the kids that didn’t already get gifts brought in, and we also choose a book for every child, courtesy of the library. Then distribution day rolls around, and that’s the best part of all. It’s impossible to miss the appreciation in the people’s eyes when they come to pick up the gifts. It’s a day I haven’t missed since we started doing it. Last year my mom and I spent the night at the library so that we wouldn’t get snowed in at home!
Creswell, a town of almost 5000 people, comes together at Christmas to fill the Friendship Room at the Creswell Library with gifts, and together we give Christmas away.