Children have so much to teach us.

At Christmas, they can teach us how to be kids again. ‘Tis the season for earnest tidings of good will, a sense of wonder when gazing upon a tree and the boundless possibilities that only require belief.

“Grown-up” gestures of pettiness and detachment are happily ignored.

Children also can teach us how to be adults year-round. Take 7-year-old Brianna Pluff, for example. The Hutton Elementary School second-grader traveled door-to-door with fruit baskets and collected an astounding $519. Then she donated the money to The Spokesman-Review’s Christmas Fund so less-fortunate kids could have at least one present to open.

In her note to the Christmas Bureau, she said that arranging the fruit wasn’t always fun – “I wanted to be playing” – but it’s clear that the unselfish undertaking will be her most cherished remembrance from this, or perhaps any other, holiday season.

Matt Schmick, a Moran Prairie Elementary School sixth-grader, donated $30 that he raised by selling candleholders he had made. His reasoning? “I wanted to give back some of what I have.”

A common complaint this time of year is that children are too wrapped up in unwrapping presents. Wonder where they get that from?

If adults would only take a little more time to impart the deeper meaning of the holidays, kids will take it from there. And because they aren’t held back by irony and cynicism, kids easily can surpass adults in the giving department. We should all strive to be children during the holidays, and it wouldn’t hurt us to tote around a bit more earnestness and selflessness the rest of the year, too.

Of course, the flip side of opening one’s heart is that it can be more easily broken. Because we are at war, thousands of children will be without a father or mother this Christmas. Some parents are stationed far away. Some have been killed in action.

According to a Scripps-Howard News Service report, nearly 900 U.S. children have lost a parent in the war. Members of the military today are more likely to have children than in previous wars. More than 40 service members in Iraq have died before seeing their babies.

We would do well to focus on the sacrifice and selflessness that is on display at home and abroad and resist the temptation to sugarcoat it. Adults try to put tragedy into perspective so they can move on. Children don’t do that. Instead, they ask all the right questions and they don’t care if their inquiries make us squirm.

Yes, children have so much to teach us.