VIDALIA — Christmas may not be about toys, but for a child, a Christmas without toys would be a sad one indeed.

But for the last 109 years, the Natchez Children’s Christmas Tree Fund has been working to ensure that children in need don’t have a toyless Christmas.

The former publisher of The Natchez Democrat, James W. Lambert, who worked with other local businessmen to collect and distribute the toys, started the fund in 1900. At the time, it was known as the Poor Children’s Christmas Tree.

In recent years, the tree’s organization has fallen to Caroline McDonough, Lambert’s great-great granddaughter.

McDonough said working with the fund has been a part of her Christmas experience since childhood.

“We always helped with the candy, and we helped (former fund chair Katherine Killelea) bag the toys — I have been doing it for years,” she said.

This year, the Christmas tree will serve between 350 and 400 children, whose names the fund gets from Catholic Charities, McDonough said.

The way the fund works is simple enough — Miss-Lou residents donate money, and McDonough buys toys.

“I’ve actually been shopping since early October,” she said.

“We take donations as little as $5, and as high as you want to go.”

One local retailer has called her every time they got a new shipment of toys in, and another one has outright donated the toys, she said.

In the meantime, the toys are stored at a local residence, where they are sorted into age groups and bagged.

On Christmas Eve, city workers go to the residence and collect the toys on a flatbed truck and take them to Braden School, where the Santa Claus committee helps distribute the presents at noon.

Donations for the Christmas Tree Fund can be mailed to P.O. Box 1082, Natchez, MS 39121 or to The Natchez Democrat, P.O. Box 1447, Natchez, MS 39121.

For more information, contact McDonough at 601-442-6381.