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You can help a homeless person this Christmas season by giving them something that shows you personally care, or I suggest you can help by giving them something completely impersonal. Or you can just wish each of them a "Happy Holiday" -- that never hurts.

There are a lot of blog posts and Web pages devoted to preparing Christmas care packages for homeless people. Every page includes a list of items, wrapping in warm sentiments. After asking a handful of homeless, and formerly homeless individuals for their opinions, I see they mostly agree with the online lists:

• white socks


• underwear


• deodorant stick


• disposable razor


• Medium, or Large T-shirt


• Chocolate bar


• mini Flashlight with batteries


• disposable rain ponch


• Something called "Weed"


• Rolling papers (Zig Zag white)


• Disposable lighter


• Zipper-lock bag


• Gift card

I know of four homeless, or formerly homeless women, but was unable to get their input for this post. Several guys agreed everything should be in a small backpack. That's sensible. The papers, lighter, and chocolate bar could be in the zipper-lock bag -- any herb should probably be in it's own zipper-lock bag. Food choices should be made on the basis of non-perishability, and two plain facts: homeless people, by-and-large are not adventurous eaters, and a lot of homeless folk -- myself included -- have lousy teeth, and many have no teeth at all.