Saturday past was our Christmas Market. That’s when the medical students who have spent the year working with a rent-controlled apartment complex (making meals, playing sports, running crafts and edutainments) bring all their donations and spread them out on tables. Kids come with a list of people they want to find presents for, and shop with help from a med student. Everything is free.

Then they get the presents gift wrapped (we always get the future surgeons to do this; they make the best wrappers) and go home happy. They got to choose things and a bunch of adults paid attention to them. The med students go home happy from making the kids happy. The parents are ecstatic because we’ve solved a problem looming large in their mind.

Some people told us early on that we were being terrible, taking yard sale leftovers and presenting them as giftables.

Those people didn’t know shit. One of the kids, walking around looking at all the donations, said “This is the most generous place I’ve ever been to. This is awesome.”

The med students arrived at 9 am and we spread out the stuff. The market opened at 2. One of the med students discovered there was a Santa suit, and he went off with it when we broke for lunch. Since he was about 21, skinny like a beanpole, and Hindu, I had my doubts, but he came back with a squishmallow strapped to his stomach, the beard on askew, and a large tub of candy canes he picked up at Walmart “to make it official.”

His “Ho Ho Ho” came out “hu hu hu” and the kids LOVED him. We ran out of tape and started packing presents into donated purses and backpacks, then slapping bows on these. “Double presents” we told the kids, with just a hint of mania behind our Christmas cheer.

It was a glorious day. The parents thanked us, the kids left sticky candy canes all over the place, and the med students removed several sharp implements from the donations as we spread them out. We went home covered in tape, tinsel, and joy.

This is Christmas.