NATCHEZ — Alongside traditions such as cookies, colored lights and carols, the Christmas season often ignites another custom: Charitable giving.

The benefits of donating time or funds in the holiday season can go unseen to the giver, but local charitable organizations say the gifts are a blessing to those in need.

During the holiday season, The Natchez Democrat will feature multiple community organizations as part of the newspaper’s annual Season of Wishes series.

Each article will highlight the efforts of nonprofit programs and how their work benefits the people, pets and community in and around Natchez, while offering information on how you can give to the cause.

This week, The Natchez Democrat asked several staple charitable organizations how much a donation means to them.

For Amanda Jeansonne of the Stewpot, every donated dollar counts.

“Our yearly budget is around $100,000,” Jeansonne said. “And with give or take 300 meals a day, six days a week, we’re making around 100,000 meals each year.”

This means, Jeansonne said, that every dollar donated to the Stewpot provides a meal for a person in need.

Volunteers at the Stewpot provide hot, home-cooked meals to elderly, shut-ins and hungry members of the Natchez community year-round.

The Stewpot also provides holiday meals, including Thanksgiving and Christmas lunches.

Those meals have to be cooked in something, Jeansonne said, and many of the pots and pans at the Stewpot have been in use as long as the community kitchen itself — around 30 years.

If they receive enough donations, Jeansonne said she hoped to replace some of their older, well-worn equipment so that the food can keep cooking for 30 more years.

Donations of time, too, are welcomed at the Stewpot. Delivery drivers take meals to area people in need who cannot come to the kitchen.

Around two-thirds of the meals provided each day, Jeansonne said, are delivered.

“It’s a wonderful place to volunteer,” Jeansonne said. “All the people get along and they’re from all walks of life. People just love to come and help out.”

The concept of donating is flipped in regards to the Junior Auxiliary of Natchez’s Angel Tree program.

Instead of dropping off funds or items and leaving, volunteers get to “adopt” a child for two weeks, learn something about the child they chose and, in the end, volunteers get to provide what might be the only Christmas presents the child gets that year.

“This is specifically for children who won’t get a Christmas otherwise,” said Lara Lee Saunders, chair of the angel tree program for JA.

The names and wishes of each of the approximately 200 area children are placed on a large Christmas tree in the Concordia Bank off Seargent S. Prentiss Drive, where volunteers can go and pick out a child to sponsor.

The sponsor selects gifts for a child and brings the presents back to the bank, where Saunders and other coordinators collect the gifts for distribution.

The tree will be placed in Concordia Bank Monday, Saunders said, and sponsors have until Dec. 10 to return with the gifts they choose.

If all the children are adopted, as Saunders hopes they will be, or if you would prefer to make a monetary donation, Saunders said all funds are used to purchase more toys, clothing or treats for the children.

“All of that money goes toward gifts,” Saunders said.

After all of the gifts are collected, the Junior Auxiliary holds a party for the sponsor children with food and music and photos with Santa Claus.

This may be the only Christmas the children get, Saunders said, and she wants to make it a happy one.

Though they may not completely understand the concept of Christmas, the dogs and cats at the Natchez-Adams County Humane Society want a warm bed for the holidays, too.

Lena McKnight, director of the humane society, said the number of animals that come often rises in during the winter.

Just in the past weeks, she said, three pregnant dogs were brought to the shelter so that the puppies could be born in a warm place.

As the weather outside gets frightful, members of the community are more likely to bring in abandoned animals.

Luckily, the Christmas season is also a time of many adoptions. Puppies and kittens, along with their older counterparts, are commonly given as gifts.

Volunteers who give just $25 to the humane society can cover the whole cost of intake, including vaccinations and deworming, for a dog or cat, McKnight said.

With each $25 increment, another dog or cat can be saved, she said.

And though it may be less glamorous than saving the life of an animal, the funds donated to the Natchez-Adams Humane Society also go toward keeping the shelter open and functioning.

Donations help the shelter pay for heating during winter months, lights and repairs to the structure.

Giving your time, too, helps the animals socialize and get ready for their new homes.

As with most nonprofits around the community, all donations to the humane society make a difference, no matter how small, McKnight said.