More stories from a great collection on Buzzfeed.  See them at: http://www.buzzfeed.com/colinheasley/heartwarming-christmas-stories

The Co-Worker

One year when I was younger, my parents were struggling financially. One of the ladies my mom works with asked my mom what my brother and I wanted for Christmas. My mom told her, and the lady bought exactly what we wanted and gave it to my parents to give to us Christmas morning. To this day my brother still says it was the best Christmas present ever, and it wasn’t until a couple years ago that my mom told us it was her co-worker that bought us the toys to give us from Santa. We may not have had a Christmas that year if it wasn’t for her generosity.

Teachers Are the Best People

One year, my family was going through a really hard time. My school was aware of this, and during our middle school Christmas party, two of my teachers brought us clothes, food, and stockings. Our tree and counters were full. My mom was crying when we got home because she wasn’t expecting us to have Christmas at all.

Christmas Carols

When I was little, my grandpa had cancer, and he and my grandma were too exhausted from all the treatments and emotions from the previous months to make the two-hour drive to Christmas with the rest of the family. So my mom arranged for us all to go over to their house instead, and we stood outside in their yard singing Christmas carols. I’ll never forget the look on my grandma’s face when she drew the curtains to see what was going on outside — it makes me tear up just to think about how excited she was. My grandpa died a month later, but my grandma has always said how grateful she was that we didn’t forget about him on what ended up being his last Christmas.