They started lining up outside in the cold, dark hours before dawn.
It was an unusual gathering. There were Arabs and Poles and Bangladeshis and Ukrainians among them, each with their own ways and beliefs, each brought to this charity by some circumstance in life. Yet all of them came here so they could have a Christmas, even as the day meant something different to each of them.
"Christmas means everything. But Christmas means moreso Christ than anything," said Sophia Shelton, 33. She was standing at the front of the line outside the Detroit Friendship House, a charity founded 95 years ago by the American Baptist Home Mission Societies. This is normally a food pantry, but it also offers courses in English, nutrition, self-sufficiency and -- right before Christmas -- it hosts this Santa Toy Shop, which provides free toys for parents facing hard times so they can have at least something to give to their kids.
Shelton had arrived several hours before the doors would open, just in case. She has four children, one of whom is autistic and homeschooled, and was now waiting at the house with her grandmother for her mother to return. "Christmas is just another day for me. But for my kiddos, it's a day they can see magic happen in real time."
There are toy giveaways like this all over the area. But few draw as unusual a crowd as this. Hamtramck is the most diverse city in the state, a jumble of cultures, "The World in Two Square Miles" as its motto declares. It used to be almost uniformly Polish; now there are dozens of nationalities and cultures improbably blended together here, embodied in the line forming outside the pantry.
Christmas meant something even for the Muslims waiting here, since Christ is revered in Islam. "Jesus Christ, actually he was a very good person," said Afroja Begum, 35. "This is when he was born. I know his mother Mary, too. All this, I know."
She'd come from Bangladesh, but she was quickly warming to Christmas and all its symbols, drawn into it by her 4-year-old son, Arsalan, standing with her in line. They hadn't been here long, nor had they reached the stage of having a Christmas tree in the house. This year, though, she took her son to downtown Detroit to see the giant Christmas tree that soars seemingly high as the sky, speckled with colored lights, an apparition unlike anything he'd ever seen back home. And now he was getting one of his first Christmas presents.
"It's from Santa Claus," she would tell him.
"Christmas is happiness," said Zaynura Khasanova, 43, who moved here from Uzbekistan and stood not far away. Five of her six children were at school as she waited in line; her 8-year-old daughter named Sumaya stood by her side. They, too, are Muslim, and never observed Christmas in the old country. "But my kids say, 'We in America now, we can celebrate all the holidays,' " she said, laughing. So, the family got a Christmas tree for the kids. And now they'd have presents, too.
Kenethia Calloway told her five children there's no such thing as presents from Santa. She had to. Because when they were down on their luck, she couldn't say that Santa doesn't deliver to the seedy motel they stayed at on Eight Mile in Detroit. So she told them the truth.
"They know where the gifts are coming from, especially after what we've been through, and you have to tell your kids that you can't get presents because you're trying to keep the roof over their head; that I can't afford gifts right now," said the 43-year-old, who grew up in Michigan. "So they know this place gave."
Calloway stood outside with the others, halfway between the front and the back of the line, which was growing longer as the morning unfolded. "Moments like this humble you when you see other people that might need more than you," she said.
For the past year, the family has been living just blocks away in a house where she takes care of her blind, disabled mother. It would be their first Christmas inside a home in a while. And for them, the presents weren't paramount. They couldn't be in their circumstances.
"Christmas is not about the gifts," she said. "You're lucky to have family. You're lucky to have whatever you have. So you just gotta be thankful because the things I've been through, I've lost so many things. We can get so materialistic we forget it's about family and friends and health and strength. So, as long as I have my mother, as long as I have my children, I'm blessed."
Inside the building, Khurshida Hossain was busy organizing the toy store. "For a lot of families, this is probably the only time they get a toy for their kid all year, just because of the financial strain they're in," said the interim executive director of Detroit Friendship House.
She came here from Bangladesh with her parents as a child, and she absorbed Christmas from the kids around her, just like her own children have done, the same as the children of the immigrants and refugees waiting in line.
"Christmas to me means an American tradition," said Hossain, 37. "I grew up making holiday wreaths in kindergarten class. I grew up with Christmas music. It was songs and decorating and playing out in the snow. So, to me, it's a cultural attachment to the American experience: Gift buying, gift giving, Secret Santa, all of that. So, apart from the religious aspect, it's more about how do we participate in this warm and cozy and family-oriented tradition?"
Alongside her, a dozen volunteers were dressed as green elves for the occasion. There were boy and girl elves there, Bengali and Arab and Polish and Black elves among them, a group as varied as the line outside. It was meant to make this event more special than just some giveaway, as was the Christmas music playing softly in the background, and the small, white Christmas tree strung with long ribbons and golden ornaments that stood lit in the corner.
Even among the elves, Christmas meant different things.
"For me it's just about community," said Toni Coral, 57, a high school teacher volunteering here today. "I know Christmas is a time when people pay closer attention to that kind of stuff. So, for me, I think it's just a time we can pay a little extra attention to some of the things that are going on in our society. There's a lot of need everywhere. I mean, there's a whole lineup of people outside who can't even get a toy for their kids."
Renia Czarnecki, 59, used to be one of them. "I love our clients, and I like seeing these people happy, 'cause I remember how it was," she said. "I don't have it that well, either, but I can survive. Fourteen years ago I was down on my luck, unfortunately, because of my drinking. And for my rehab stint I had to do volunteer service, and I came here. And this place has helped me throughout the years. So, Christmas to me is happiness, joy, just being grateful to be here."
The doors opened. Here came Shelton to get a paint set for her kids. In walked Khasanova with her little daughter, who snagged a twin set of dolls for herself. There was Begum with a soccer ball and building blocks for her son, who was jumping up and down at her side. And here was Calloway with a bag of toys, though not enough for all her children. "But you know, if they don't get something now, they're still blessed with what they have," she said.
The room was small, so the elves let in three sets of parents at a time to shop. They guided them to tables spread with books; to tables with board games for families to play together; to shelves with science toys for kids to learn from; to racks of Barbie dolls and action figures to play with. There was a box of small toy stocking stuffers by the door. And a table with free hats and mittens donated by a nearby church.
And nothing had a price tag.
By the end, 370 kids would get a gift. Ninety families would have presents to exchange. And no matter what meaning they found in Christmas, everyone there was drawn to the spirit behind the day.
"What I've found is that a lot of them, whether they're new immigrants or not, they don't know what this is about," Hossain said. "This is probably the first time they've experienced what Christmas is, and they might think Christmas is kind of more consumerism, so they think they're just getting a gift and participating in that way. But, at the core of it, Christmas is family, it's friends, it's a warm meal. It's just the spirit of unity, which I love. That's what Christmas is."
John Carlisle writes about Michigan. His stories can be found at freep.com/carlisle. Contact him: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @_johncarlisle, Facebook at johncarlisle.freep or on Instagram at johncarlislefreep.