BOISE, Idaho — Editor's note: This story originally aired in 2001.
For many, the holiday season is the most wonderful time of the year. Getting together with family and friends, sharing meals and memories, and exchanging gifts can be an incredibly happy event.
For others, however, the holiday season can be a reminder of the absence of those things.
In 2001, KTVB reporter John Miller met a seven-year-old boy from Emmett who wrote a letter to Santa Claus after his mother lost her job. In the letter, he didn't ask for anything for himself, but for everyone else, to ensure everyone could have a good holiday.
"Dear Santa, my name is Forrest, I am seven. can you please help my mom find a job, so she won't 'louse' her car and we can pay rent? I am a good boy, and I help my mom clean. Please bring my little sister and my brother something, special, because they don't know that Santa is poor. Please read my letter. Forrest."
Apparently, Santa got the message- after Forrest's aunt saw the letter- and sent it to a radio station who joined forces with the local Yamaha dealer to grant a wish Forrest had never made: to have his very own motorcycle.
Because Forrest was thinking of everyone else, all of his wishes came true: the kids got toys and his mother found a job.
"Usually it's about me me me, and he just totally didn't think of himself at all," Forrest's mom Angela said.
Forrest asked for presents for everyone in his family but didn't ask Santa for anything for himself because, according to him, "I love them, and they're nice to me."
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