Compassionate acts of kindness

WHAT are you getting for Christmas? What’s Santa bringing?

Chances are your child has heard these questions multiple times recently in past weeks. It’s all understandable but — with the emphasis on getting — the questions diminish the wider sense of Christmas as a time for giving.

“We need to look at ways to get children thinking about Christmas as a time for giving, to practically involve them in giving, not just pulling out the money, but doing something,” says parent coach Val Mullaly, who recalls a personal special childhood Christmas memory – “helping needy children in a soup kitchen scenario” at age 10.