Imagine for a moment that you’re a 7-year-old child. It’s Christmas Eve, and the butterflies are beginning to circle in the deepest recesses of your stomach. Time moves at a snail’s pace.

You set out cookies and milk for Santa Claus. Sleep is minimal as your ear struggles to hear sleigh bells ringing in the December air. On Christmas morning, few things in the world can compare with seeing a smiling child opening the one gift that outdoes all the rest.

Now think of a Christmas morning with none of the above. Think of a morning where children wake up to no tree and no presents. It’s a fact of life, especially in trying economic times, that some will be left out in the cold.

The Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program kicked off Thursday. People can visit 11 different locations in Vicksburg to find a tree filled with paper angels. On each angel is the name of a child and his or her Christmas wishes. A person then chooses an angel and provides a gift for that child.

Angel trees will be at Trustmark Bank on Halls Ferry Road, Bowmar Baptist, First Presbyterian and Triumph churches, Bass Shoe Outlet, Rainbow and DiamondJacks casinos, Waste Management, South Park Elementary, Pemberton Square mall and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Vicksburg District.

If ever there was a cause to get behind, the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program is it. Thanks to the generosity of this community, hundreds of children will wake up Dec. 25 with that golden smile so many of us have experienced in Christmases past.