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Keller @ Large: Christmas Generosity, A Timeless Theme

BOSTON (CBS) – This is not just the time of year for evergreens in your living room – it's also high season for evergreen holiday season stories on the news.

The traffic crush. The year-in-review.

And today and tonight, of course, the classic Christmas Eve story, the last-minute shoppers.

I did that one myself a couple of years ago, and they were some of the best man-and-woman-on-the-street interviews ever.

Other times you're asking people to comment on politics, or the NFL rules, or some other distasteful topic. But people are happy to talk about the gifts they're buying for others because it's a transaction with real personal meaning, and they feel good about it.

Which reminds me of some other evergreen news stories you see every year at this time.

The generous donations to charities. The holiday parties for the needy.

The community rallying around a fire victim.

Compassionate acts occur every day. But people still look to this season as a time to reaffirm the good news about family and community values that sometimes, sorry to say, takes a backseat to all the bad news.

Did I gently needle some of the 11th hour shoppers I interviewed that time for becoming a Christmas Eve cliche? Of course I did – I'm a Bostonian.

But I also re-learned something from their state of grace – it really is better to give than to receive.

Listen to Jon's commentary:

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