Holiday Toy Drives
Growing up in a Buddhist household, my family did not celebrate holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas. As a kid, I remember getting sad every time the holidays came around because my favorite restaurants would be closed and the only places open were Asian restaurants. Trying to explain to a kid why McDonald’s is not an option on Christmas Day is a very difficult thing to do. It wasn’t until about high school when I took matters into my own hands and brought home our first Christmas tree.
High school was a fun time because I was very active in the community. I was part of Interact Club and Key Club at the same time. As it got closer to the holidays, I would always look forward to volunteering at the Family Giving Tree events. The main volunteer event was to sort out the thousands of toys according to age range. There were so many toys it felt like I was in toy heaven. I remember happily volunteering at this event for a few years.
This year, memories of my high school volunteer days came back when my work put out those big bins in hopes of collecting toys for the holidays. So I went to the nearest toy store to see what the newest trend in toys were. Last I checked, Yu-Gi-Oh was the hottest new thing. One thing I noticed was that the majority of toys nowadays require batteries. It would be silly to buy kids these toys because what happens once the batteries run dry? The whole point is that they can’t afford toys let alone replacement batteries. The answer was board games.
Everybody loves board games. They are low maintenance, most don’t require batteries, fun to play, and it brings people together. Kids like to play with other kids. Board games offer all that and more. As I was standing in the board game isle, one game stood out the most. It wasn’t the flashy colors or creative box design or event the clever game title that stood out, but he simplicity of the game. Jenga.
Jenga? Yes, Jenga. Think about it. You start of complete and strong. Outside forces come in and slowly chip away at you. Eventually you get to the point where you can’t handle it anymore and everything comes crashing down. What happens afterwards? The people around help build you up to become complete and strong again. It’s life defined in blocks of wood. Something so simple can mean so many things. Besides, it’s the holidays right? The holiday vibe brings people together and reminds us that we’re all in this together. Love thy family and friends.
