Instead of having a Christmas party this year, Sharon DesJardins and her colleagues at Helping Hands Hawai'i are chipping in to adopt families through the Advertiser Christmas Fund.

So far, they've collected $900. And DesJardins convinced her husband, Noel, to do the same at his workplace, Pflueger Acura. Employees at the car dealership collected $1,000 in days, which was matched dollar for dollar by Pflueger general manager John Shreve.

"Somebody needs to light the spark," Sharon DesJardins said. "It's easy."

The DesJardins and their colleagues are among thousands who have come out since Thanksgiving to help their neighbors in need through the fund, donating toys, furniture and clothes, giving money or pledging to adopt families and fill their holiday wishes.

Despite the generosity, monetary donations to the fund are down from last year.

As of yesterday, about $34,000 had been donated to families.

At the same time in 2005, the fund had already amassed $47,000, said Community Clearinghouse program manager Maria Chomyszak.

"I'm concerned," she said. "Last year, people were just in a giving mood."

Chomyszak said she couldn't explain the decrease in donations.

She stressed that almost all of the money to the fund goes directly to families, either during the holidays or throughout the year. A record $218,000 was donated to the Christmas fund in 2005. The previous year netted $179,000, and people donated $147,000 in 2003.

The Christmas Fund has been around for more than half a century. Every day through Christmas Eve, the Advertiser profiles families in need, detailing their daily struggles and their Christmas wishes. The families represent a fraction of those helped by the fund.

This year, many donors are returning to help the fund in their own holiday tradition. One generous Hawai'i resident, dubbed the fund's "Secret Santa," has pledged to match the first $25 of each donation. It's a pledge he's made every year for more than a decade. Last year alone, he donated $36,000.

Also returning to the fund this year are students and teachers at 'Aikahi Elementary School. For seven years, the school has been adopting families through the fund. "Quite a few of our teachers do it as a lesson," said Gay Jennings, 'Aikahi parent-community networking coordinator. "After all, the greatest gift is to give and not to receive."

In the past, the school has donated a truckload of goods, filling laundry baskets with toys and household items for some 25 Christmas Fund families. Jennings said students and teachers get a sense of pride out of helping an impoverished family.

One of the more innovative donations this year comes from Kristen Uyeoka. The 10th-grader at St. Andrew's Priory School made 50 glass bead bracelets, which she called "kindness bracelets," for girls her age whose families are participating in the fund. She put the bracelets in little packages and wrote a note to the girls who will receive them.

Uyeoka said she decided to make the bracelets after being given a class assignment to do something for her community. It took her two weeks to make the trinkets. "I think kindness begins with each of us individually," the 15-year-old said. "With these bracelets, I was kind of hoping to bring a sense of hope and joy to the girl who wears it."

Reach Mary Vorsino at mvorsino@honoluluadvertiser.com.