Teacher praises school child for thoughtful Christmas gift despite having ‘nothing to give’

‘Be grateful for what you have, and what others give you. It all truly comes from the deepest parts of their hearts’

(Getty)

Buying copious Christmas presents can be an expensive endeavour, one that not everyone can afford.

But a thoughtful gift doesn’t always require money, as one teacher in Washington State realised when one of her young students gave her a small bag of marshmallows picked out from her breakfast cereal before departing for the holidays.

Writing about the present on Facebook, Rachel Uretsky-Pratt explained how every student at her school is on free or reduced lunches and that one “kiddo” was desperate to give her a present but had “nothing to give”.

“So rather than give me nothing, this student opened up her free breakfast cereal this morning, took the packaging of her spork, straw, and napkin, and finally took the time to take every marshmallow out of her cereal to put in a bag – for me,” she said.

“Be grateful for what you have, and what others give you. It all truly comes from the deepest parts of their hearts.”

Uretsky-Pratt’s post has clearly touched the hearts of many, garnering more than 362,000 likes and 122,000 shares.

Thousands of people responded in the comments, describing her story as “beautiful” and “deeply moving”.

“That says a lot about you as a very special and loved teacher and it says a lot about this sweet and precious child,” wrote one person, while another labelled it the “sweetest gesture”.

Fellow teachers shared similar stories of simple but touching gifts they’d been bought by children.

“I once had a student bring in a bag of pretzel sticks for his birthday,” wrote one person. “It was obviously all he could afford. We sang to him, he picked a special helper, and he passed out his treat proud as could be. The students treated it like they were getting the best cupcakes ever. It was so beautiful.”

Another added, “my favourite gift one year was a boy who said he could only give me a hug for Christmas, but gave me his best big bear hug. I wrote a thank you note for the gift.”