Gifts of Love

When it comes to solving the annual challenge of holiday gift giving, FamilyFun readers have no shortage of creative ideas. Here, you'll find inspiring stories of how they spread holiday cheer by crafting personalized presents -- like a Family Alphabet Book, Thank-You Tubes, Bandages for the Soul, and a Movie Buff Bowl -- or by pooling their funds for charitable causes.

Embracing new traditions is a great way to celebrate being a family. One family, for example, has learned that a simple gift of tabletop trees can brighten the holidays for nursing-home residents. Here's their story.

TINY TREES
These festive tabletop decorations fit the bill for friends who don't have the room or the means to set up a full-size tree.

Last year at Christmastime, 10-year-old Maddie Zgonc told her mother, Melissa, that she wanted to do something to honor the residents of the VA hospital near their home in Powder Springs, Georgia. Maddie's 90-year-old great-grandfather lives right next door, and Maddie, having grown up hearing his stories about serving in World War II, has a "special heart" for veterans, explains Melissa.

Together, the family shopped for a bunch of tabletop Christmas trees (sold at craft stores during the holiday season) and miniature decorations like button and candy ornaments, and used craft wire to hang the decorations on the branches.

Then Maddie asked her classmates to help collect small gifts to place under the boughs. The week before Christmas, the family loaded up the car and headed to the nursing home unit of the hospital, where they set up a tree for each room. Both Maddie and her 8-year-old sister, Emma, stayed and chatted with residents.

"The vets loved talking to the girls," Melissa says.

Later, Maddie said that she had a much better sense of what Christmas was about, reports Melissa, and that she felt really good about the project, even with all the hard work -- and even though she emptied out her piggy bank to do it.

"I was really impressed," says Melissa. "She has a maturity that I didn't know she had."