The Christmas season is the time for giving and people seem to come up with new ways to make the holiday more joyous for others. A few years ago, anonymous donors paid for others Christmas layaway items. The idea spread and is another example of giving during the holidays.

Add to the innovative ways to help others without recognition; paying up overdue lunch costs for school children. Hastings schools have benefited, first reported by WOOD-TV, when an anonymous couple  paid almost $1,000 in overdue lunch bills for the district’s four elementary schools.

Superintendent Carrie Duits said the students and their families were suprised and grateful.

The couple will remain anonymous. “They really wanted to challenge all of us to think about kind acts,” Duits was quoted as saying in the television report.

Another example: A woman talking briefly with a lady in a local store learned that the lady couldn’t find Tabu, her favorite perfume. She took the lady’s name and address and finding the famous scent in another local store, bought Tabu perfume and after-bath dusting power, and delivered the gifts to her home.

The women will never know her benefactor’s name. “I know she was surprised and very happy with the Tabu; it really lifted my spirits, making me feel good, too,” she said.

More ways to spread good will in the community by “paying it forward” will surely be found in the future by those who look for them.