Wishlist Trees vs. Thanksgiving Trees

Although I'm not always successful, I've been really happy lately because I'm able to focus on all the great things in my life. We're in a down recession and yet I still have so much love and support. I'm still working and though I'm just barely paying my bills, they are still getting paid.

I was reading this article and the commentary at WiseBread about needy families who are using wishlist trees to ask for big ticket items like iPods and Xboxs and turning off those who want to donate but can't afford those items for their own children.

In the comments many talk about ways that they get around these seemingly exorbitant requests and others don't want to stop needy kids from dreaming, but I think there's another side to this.

This Thanksgiving, I asked many around me what they were thankful for and many seemed reluctant to say, or made jokes. But so many seem to have little problem as to what they want. Any maybe this is our problem.

Why don't we have Thanksgiving trees instead of Wishlist trees? It seems that it would help the needy and those who aren't needy more to help them to focus on the good instead of the bad. Having been depressingly unemployed last Christmas, I cried thinking about the things I didn't have and the things I couldn't get for those I love, because it often seemed like Christmas was about what everyone wants. But maybe it's no accident that Thanksgiving and Christmas are right next to each other. And if you're religious, Christmas is a celebration of God's blessing to the world. Not a celebration of what God wants, or what you or I want.

I'm taking this time at the end of my year to look at all the great things in my life now that I've spent the whole year putting it back together. And I'm looking forward at next year and what I seek to accomplish then. As much as I'd like to, no one I know is getting any big ticket items from me, but I'll definitely be finding a way to show them that I really appreciate all they've contributed to my life this year.

And when I have my own family, I hope to give them a Thanksgiving tree.