Giftmas 2022

Every year Rhonda Parrish organizes Giftmas to raise money for the Edmonton Food Bank. For every dollar raised, the Edmonton Food Bank will turn it into three meals. Our goal this year is to raise $1000, which means 3000 meals.

Please help us reach our goal.

The theme this year is Light in the Darkness.

I love Christmas. My best Christmas was probably the year I turned three. Back then I could do the splits, touch my face with my feet, and hold a pen and write with my toes. I was living my best life.

I got two very special gifts that year. One was a beautiful play-mat lovingly made by my mother. It had fields made of green velvet and rivers made of blue satin, so it was a tactile joy as well as beautiful to look at. It also came with farm buildings made out of boxes covered in felt, plastic farm animals, and a little wooden train. I still have the mat and the engine of the train.

The other gift was a plastic phone filled with Smarties, a type of chocolate candy covered in a colorful sugar shell. My sister gave it to me. Smarties were her favorite sweets, so I knew it was an extra special gift.

On Christmas evening, I sat on the floor next to the tree and ate the Smarties while playing with the phone. It had a plastic rotary dial, and I loved spinning it around and pretending to make phone calls. I’d pick up the receiver, hold it to my ear, and enthusiastically say hello.

One time, when I placed the phone to my ear, I heard a strange voice say hello back.

To this day I’ve no idea what I heard, but it terrified me so much that I never played with the phone again, and the incident was burned into my memory.

This experience inspired my Christmas horror novelette, Hanging On, which will be released on the 14th of December. It’s about seven year old Angelina, and the light that helps her when she’s in a very dark place.

Please help Edmonton Food Bank be a light in the darkness for people this Christmas by donating whatever you can. If we make our goal of $1000, that means 3000 meals.