One tradition that I miss is gathering food toys and clothes to take across the border into Tijuana, Mexico..

My dad was a president of a Ham radio club that would throw a huge party in a dance hall and pass out treats, gifts and food.

After a few times doing something like that the luster and the commercialism takes the edge off the holidays for me.

Some things I remember the most were watching children going thru piles of clothes, holding a shirt up to see if it fit and going over to a sibling or parent for their approval.

Or handing a woman a bag or basket of food and watching the tears well up in her eyes while she
thanks you over and over and over again.

But even more special is watching a kid take a candy filled stocking to their brothers and sisters to share..

But my favorite of all time is the time we took boxes of oranges to hand out to the childern..

After you see a three year old kid doing the "orange dance" laughing and smiling, holding their
gift over their heads with two hands - you really see what is important and what a fun Christmas tradition it was.