Editor's Note: How NPOs Saved Christmas

So this is Christmas. With all due props to John Lennon, that was the thought that wormed its way through my mind as I did some holiday shopping around Thanksgiving. Weary disenchantment dogged me early because, by mid-November, shoppers already were showing signs of the impatience, impoliteness and downright nastiness that inexplicably is characteristic of what should be the warmest of seasons.