Giving should be enjoyable, shouldn't it?

Every year I try to do those giving tree things. You know, there's a tree at your workplace or at church or at Borders and you pick an ornament and it has a kid's age and gender and what they want for Christmas. This year at work, I passed by the tree maybe twenty times and I couldn't get myself to stop and pluck an ornament. Partially because I had already done a few others from somewhere else, but partially because the ones that end up on the work giving tree are usually more high-end things like a laptop or a video game console...stuff I wouldn't even think of buying for people I know, much less some random kid.

There must have been a good 30 or more ornaments left on the tree the day before they took the tree down. So I have to wonder...what happens to those kids that don't get their wish? Are some kids' Christmases ruined just because some selfish middle-class white-collar worker couldn't be bothered to spread some Christmas joy to the less fortunate? I feel annoyed that some kids would ask for such extravagant gifts, yet I feel guilty that I couldn't get past that to give anyway. I didn't even look at the tags at work this year.

It must be tough being that one kid that gets to open a bag of one-size-fits-all socks that they buy on reserve in case they don't get enough from the giving tree, when everyone else around you got their board game, or their Barbie vet doctor, or their clock radio. I don't know why I feel guilty about not being able to help them all...I bet this is how those celebrities feel when they take their adopted kid home from a third-world country and look out their private jet window as they are leaving and see thousands of other kids they can afford to help but don't because their PR agent told them, "Just one".

I think next year instead of doing the giving tree, maybe I'll learn how to knit and do the baby blanket drive. At least babies won't complain if they got a blanket they didn't like.