Share the gift of giving

If you're wondering just how bad the economy is, consider this: I just parked my car on that deck you can see from the Expressway, and Globe Santa came out of nowhere, leaning over my windshield with an empty Dunkin' Donuts cup and a squeegee.

Jake Kennedy knows how Globe Santa feels.

"It's always hard," he says, "but this year it's harder."

You may recall that the former occupant of this space started a tradition some years ago in which this space is used every December to make one shameless pitch for Christmas in the City, the annual holiday party for homeless children throughout the metropolitan area.

The party, put on by Kennedy, a physical therapist; his wife, Sparky; and hundreds of volunteers is beautifully simple: they decorate a huge hall in Boston, and they fill it with kids who otherwise would consider Christmas just another day surviving things beyond their control. They are allowed to ask for and receive a gift of their choice.

"Every kid should be able to open something on Christmas that they really wanted," Jake Kennedy says.

The need has never been greater. Layoffs. Foreclosures. Uncertainty. All of this on top of the usual human condition.

Last year, they squeezed 2,600 children into the party, and they took care of 700 families afterward who couldn't fit. This year, they're going to go for 2,800 children at the party, and already have 1,000 families on the list to help afterward.

"The phone's ringing off the hook," Kennedy said.

But it's mostly need that is ringing. Kennedy and his crew need more people to call, to pledge to buy a toy for a kid who otherwise won't get one.

"This year we're getting people saying, 'Don't give my kids toys, give them winter coats,' " Kennedy says.

Rebecca DeFrancisco was living in a shelter with three children and was pregnant with a fourth when she went to her first Christmas in the City nine years ago.

"I grew up in a wealthy household, so I knew what a comfortable Christmas was like," she said. "It was a big reality check when I couldn't provide for my own kids."

Nine years ago, DeFrancisco's children got to experience a real Christmas with hundreds of others.

But Kennedy and the other folks who run Christmas in the City do more than throw parties. They work with homeless families year round. They helped DeFrancisco move out of the shelter and into an apartment. They helped her get into college, and they helped her get a job.

Every year since, DeFrancisco and her children have gone back to the party, but as volunteers.

Last week, DeFrancisco got laid off from her medical administration job.

"Jake called me and he was like, 'Don't worry about it. We'll get you another job.' " she said. "That's Jake."

She can't wait for the party on Sunday. And neither can her kids, who will spend Saturday helping hundreds of other volunteers, many of them children from well-off suburbs, transform the cavernous hall into a winter wonderland.

"My kids call it Jake's party," she said.

Stevie Dembro is the UPS guy who delivers to Kennedy Brothers Physical Therapy downtown on Franklin Street and when he finishes work, he spends every December night organizing the delivery of the toys. This is what brown can do for you.

And this is what you can do for Stevie Dembro and the hundreds of people who try to make a difference in a poor child's life: pick up the phone and call 617-542-6611 and get a child's name and buy her the gift she asked for. Or go to the website, www.christmasinthecity.org, and do it.

Or, you can do what many people who work downtown do, and that's drop by Kennedy Brothers at 45 Franklin St., anytime.

Trust me. Jake will put to you work.

Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at cullen@globe.com