With less than a week to go until Christmas, you could say we’re in the “T-Minus-and-counting” mode.Most of us have graduated to the “last-minute” things – the presents that enhance the gifts we’ve already purchased. The big-ticket items, for the most part, have been either bought or rejected as too expensive at this time, thanks to the current economic downturn.It’s possible that thanks to current conditions, the pile under the tree won’t be as high or expansive this Christmas. All of us, whether out of necessity or fear that the Grim Reaper of unemployment looms beyond the New Year, have scaled back. Department stores have certainly felt the pinch.But we soldier on. We try to keep the spirit of Christmas alive, through layoffs, company shutdowns, Wall Street nosedives, and just about every other item of horrible news we could possibly hear. But it isn’t easy.Snow helps for some people. The idea of a “White Christmas,” thanks to Bing Crosby and Irvin Berlin, still feeds our romantic notion of the quintessential yuletide.Some of us will do anything ? play more Christmas carols, sing a little louder, put up more lights around the house ? to recapture that Christmas magic we felt when we were young and free of these types of worries.At times like this, we know. We understand how precarious the human condition is. And we all fear that, come next year, the downward trend on those charts and graphs in corporate boardrooms all over America – the ones that have has caused such misery and heartache throughout the country – could reach out and grab us next.And during these times, maybe, we finally get it. Maybe we realize that the letters we reference to in the Daily Item Santa stories aren’t written by a group of abstract subjects merely for the purposes of raising money.These are real people, with real concerns, whose hopes and dreams have been waylaid by the reality of a bad economy. Whatever they set out to do in their lives, circumstances – some well beyond their control – have led them down a different, more difficult, path.The good news, though, is that it doesn’t take much to lift the human spirit. Perhaps a small gesture, with just the right amount of purity of heart, is the best medicine.A small contribution to the Item Santa fund isn’t going to solve everyone’s problems. But that’s not the idea. Nobody ever promised that dropping a check or a couple of bills, into an envelope and delivering it to the Item, or the Salvation Army, would lift people out of poverty.But it might just help lift someone out of the doldrums that leave them feeling besieged, helpless, and doomed.With only five days until Christmas, we would ask that you look at it this way. There’s still time to contribute toward lifting a family’s spirit – even if it’s only for one day. You’re making a positive contribution even if you do that.Whatever has happened to people who find themselves asking for help this Christmas, let’s refrain from judging them too harshly, and let’s pull together to try and lift their spirits as best we can. Please. You can still donate to the Item Santa fund and come away feeling good about perhaps motivating someone to get over the hump.Click here to download a coupon to make a donation to Item Santa.Mail it, along with your check, to The Item Salvation Army Santa, P.O. Box 951, Lynn, MA 01903.For more information, call the Salvation Army at 781-598-0673.