I have been a good boy this year. Well, most of the time. But this letter isn’t about me. I am writing to ask you to look kindly upon all the poor souls who struggle in their daily lives, who must deal constantly with hardship and strife, who deserve a little happiness this Christmas season. You probably already know the folks I’m talking about: they made the majority of our headlines in 2013.

Dan Shaw — one of the community’s frequent contributors of letters to the editor, God bless you, sir, keep ‘em coming — has penned a Viewpoint this week that lays into a guest column that appeared in this space last week. Entitled “Better Pay For A Better Economy,” the piece advocated raising the minimum wage to offset its eroding value over time. Clearly Mr. Shaw doesn’t see things in quite the same way.The minimum wage, he writes, only drives up the cost of hiring for businesses, which in turn depresses job growth. As for the notion that a higher minimum wage could actually help the economy, Mr. Shaw proposes a phrase for that: “a lie.”

Santa’s not the only fella who has a need to check his mailbag nowadays. Over the past few weeks our post office and e-mail boxes have overflowed with missives that together make just the recipe for an easy-peasy column. Ho ho ho heck yeah.

With Christmas blockbusters flooding the movieplex, chances are excellent we’ll soon enjoy the familiar cinematic spectacle of squabbling, disputatious countries that push their disagreements to the brink, only for mankind to unite as one after space aliens swoop in from the galaxy’s outer reaches and start blasting everything to bits.

With the holiday season upon us, I find myself looking forward to Thanksgiving as much as, if not more than, other prominent dates on the calendar. Unlike Christmas, which can be such as big deal it becomes overwhelming, Thanksgiving is a time to enjoy the company of family and friends with no need for much fuss. (Except when it comes to preparing the evening feast, of course). Not to knock the virtues of our Dec. 25 holiday spectacle, but there’s a lot to be said for keeping it simple on this national day of thanks.