Amazingly enough, the gift-giving started with high school boys, a group of juniors known as goof-offs.

Our school English teacher introduced the class to the concept of gifts of the heart and quoted an author. I don’t recall who, but the concept stuck. Definitions ranged from purchasing a gift with thought and care to giving handcrafted gifts to intangible gifts such as friendship.

In class the next day, the snickering juniors ambled to the teacher’s desk bearing an elaborately decorated gift box.

“Something from our heart,” said one of the boys.

“Open it,” said another.

The teacher slid off the lid and lifted out a whiskey bottle. She seemed momentarily stunned.

The boys burst into laughter. “Whiskey from our hearts!” said a ringleader.

The boys, knowing how far they could go with their shenanigans, finally confessed the “whiskey” bottle was filled with honey.

The teacher said nothing, tucked the bottle in her desk drawer, and continued with the lesson.

Meaningful gifts. My mind meandered back to times when I’ve been the recipient and the giver of what I felt were gifts of the heart.

Quilts. Who has received a handcrafted quilt that hasn’t felt wrapped in love? A family assembled quilt blocks each family member had worked on. According to each one’s skills, some embroidered pictures of Grandma’s flower garden. Others used fabric crayons to draw cowboy-related scenes with the family brand, each quilt block reminiscent of Grandma’s life. Grandma thought of the gift-givers each time she made her bed.

Our women’s group sewed baby receiving blankets for newborns in an impoverished community, each blanket stitched with care, love, and anonymity.

During a recession, a family with several children received encouragement when the doorbell rang. No one at the door. A cake sat on a porch lawn chair along with a note: “On the first day of Christmas, one frosted treat.”

The family had resources enough to struggle through Christmas, but simple gifts from the “12 days of Christmas” added joy to the season. The family enjoyed the excitement of waiting for the next treat that included snacks, poems, recipes, candies, etc., anonymously delivered by a creative young married couple also on a tight budget.

“What would Daddy like for Christmas?” asked a youngster in another family.

After much pondering, the child knew the perfect gift. Dad received crayon-decorated coupons for no-bake cookies and a head scratch.

The gifts of the heart I’ve heard about were varied and creative.

A woman born in the early 1900s shared how her baby doll received a pieced quilt she wrapped her baby in — a neighbor supplied the labor — a doll she treasured up into her 80s.

A dad took his daughter bike riding when her friends didn’t invite her to ride with them. Dad turned a rejection into a memory-keeping outing.

A carpenter saved wood scraps, trimmed and sanded them until he had a bag full of blocks that provided a youngster hours of play.

A week later, back at the high school where the junior boys had gifted their teacher a “whiskey” bottle filled with honey, nothing more had been said about her discussion on gifts of the heart and the boys’ behavior. That morning the teacher called the goof-offs to the front of the classroom.

The teacher brought out her home-baked, luscious-looking cake. With frosting, she’d sculpted a bee on the top. The class gave a cheer for the teacher. She’d used the “whiskey bottle honey” to make a cake! She passed around slices to the class. What a model for gifts of the heart.