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The White Envelope

or the Best Christmas Present Ever

The following story was given to Nancy Ware by Loren Hickman on Christmas morning, 2015.  After reading the story, she was handed a white envelope.

A True Christmas Story... For The Man Who Hated Christmas

By Nancy W. Gavin

It’s just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past ten years.

 

It all began because my husband, Mike, hated Christmas. Oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it – overspending and the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma – the gifts given in desperation because you couldn’t think of anything else.  Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way.

 

Our son, Kevin, who was 12 that year, was on the wrestling team at the school he attended. Shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church. These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes.  As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other

team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler’s ears. It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously could not afford.

 

Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, “I wish just one of them could have won,” he said. “They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them.” Mike loved kids – all kids. He so enjoyed coaching little league football, baseball and lacrosse. That’s when the idea for his present came.  That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes, and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church. On Christmas Eve, I placed a small, white envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done, and that this was his gift from me.

 

Mike's smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year. And that same bright smile lit up succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition – one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on. The white envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning, and our children – ignoring their new toys – would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents. As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the small, white envelope never lost its allure.

 

The story doesn’t end there. You see, we lost Mike last year due to dreaded cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree. And the next morning, I found it was magically joined by three more. Unbeknownst to the others, each of our three children had for the first time placed a white envelope on the tree for their dad. The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing to take down that special envelope.

Mike’s spirit, like the Christmas spirit will always be with us.

-----

Publishers's Note:
This true story was originally published in the December 14, 1982 issue of Woman's Day magazine. It was the first place winner out of thousands of entries in the magazine's "My Most Moving Holiday Tradition" contest in which readers were asked to share their favorite holiday tradition and the story behind it. The story inspired a family from Atlanta, Georgia to start The White Envelope Project and Giving101, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating youth about the importance of giving. To learn more about honoring a loved one through this special tradition, please visit www.WhiteEnvelopeProject.org. 

My Students

 

My students love to listen to read alouds. They love story time! But they also love to try their own hand at spelling and math. They are very hands on and need to be doing something to keep them engaged. 

 

We are an elementary school in the middle of a big urban city.

 

My students are from various ethnic backgrounds who all share the same love of learning. Our school loves to integrate arts into different parts of the core curriculum. My students say their favorite part of school is reader's and writer's workshop. Their little brains and hands are working as fast as they can to absorb any and all the information. 

My Project

The read alouds I have chosen, such as Scaredy Squirrel and Fireflies, are ones that will get them excited about reading. They are also mentor texts for personal narrative and informative writing. I hope to use them to model how to read stories and how to write different kinds of stories. The magic boards are to help the kids stay engaged while spelling words or writing math equations. But it gives us something different to work with besides pencil and paper. I hope that they will stay engaged in lessons and get to practice while on the rug. 

 

Your donation will help for many years to come! These books and magic boards are items that my students have loved using.

 

The books are favorites that students over many years have requested. It helps foster their love of reading! The magic boards are a fun way to spell words or work out math problems.

Below is what I found in my white envelope.  A donation was made in my name to Mrs. Endo's first grade class at Miraloma Elementary School in San Francisco

Magical Reading and Writing

My students need magic boards to practice spelling and math problems, and some of their favorite read alouds such as Scaredy Squirrel and Fireflies.

Mrs. Endo's First Grade Class at Miraloma Elenemtary School in San Francisco.

Perhaps this white Envelope will become part of our family's tradition.  It would be so wonderful knowing we were helping to make the world a better place.

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