Beginning today, and continuing each Sunday through Christmas, the Eastern Wake News and its sister newspapers are highlighting area charities that serve residents throughout the region. We urge you to give what you can to support their missions.

Human needs arise throughout the calendar year, but our minds often turn to giving around the holidays.

As you begin your Christmas shopping in earnest, we encourage you to review the charities we highlight, or research those of special interest to you, and find a way to give.

There is no better gift than to provide the basic needs of life.

Whether your donation helps purchase firewood for a cold home, provide comfort at the end of one's life or helps make a sick child's wish come true, we all share an innate desire to do something nice for other people.

The Christmas season gives you every opportunity to do that.

For parents with children in the home, this can be a great object lesson in sharing with others and it's an opportunity to show your children that not everyone has as safe and comfortable a life as they do.

As unpleasant a lesson as that might be to impart upon your children, it's important that they develop a wider view beyond the four walls of their home.

So, please, read carefully about the charities we feature over the coming weeks and find a little extra money in your checkbook, or a little extra time on the calendar, to support a cause that's bigger than just you and your family.

After all, that's the spirit of the season.