When you heard people say Christmas is "the most wonderful time of the year," they're not wrong.
And while the holidays may not seem too far away, one two-year-old boy from Cincinnati Ohio might not be here to celebrate it.
Brody Allen is fighting against a terminal cancer diagnosis, and doctors suspected he wouldn't make it to December 25.
"This is the true meaning of Christmas."
On September 20, Christmas came to Brody, with the help of his community and plenty of holiday spirit.
"It's beautiful. It's just absolutely beautiful to see the community and so many people that you don't know coming out and wishing my son a Merry Christmas," Brody's father Todd Allen said in an interview with WLWT.
"People from all over the world are sending me messages in languages I don't know, sending me prayers in religions I've never heard of and just embracing our family in ways I could've never imagined."
Both friends and strangers gathered in a Kroger parking lot, dressed in costume and sang classics from "Jingle Bells" to "Silent Night" to lift the youngster's spirits.
Of course, St. Nick was present at the festivities to surprise the youngster.
"This is the true meaning of Christmas, to show love and to be able to be a part of that has been such a blessing to me," Michael Gabbard, the man behind the Santa Claus costume, told WKRC.
Although the afternoon had an incredible turn out, people from around the world who couldn't make the celebration turned to social media to send Brody their well wishes.
"People from all over the world are sending me messages in languages I don't know, sending me prayers in religions I've never heard of and just embracing our family in ways I could've never imagined," Allen added.
"Thank you for giving my son a Christmas we could've never imagined and I certainly could never have given."
Unfortunately, not everyone shares the same holiday spirit this year.
"It made me scared but also mad because they don't know who we're doing it."
Two teenagers have been arrested after vandalizing the Christmas decorations around the Allens' neighborhood, which were put in place to lift his spirits.
The damages include a slash to an inflatable Santa and a inflatable polar bear with a cut under the arm.
Although the details are scarce, NBC News reports the adolescents were caught after a neighbor saw them slashing a decoration last Wednesday night and reported them to authorities.
"It made me scared but also mad because they don't know who we're doing it for and like they should be ashamed of theirself and they should stop doing it," Brody's nine-year-old neighbor Shayla Edwards told WTHR.
Luckily, the kindness of their friends and neighbors outweighed the cruel act of the juveniles, and the inflatables have since been repaired.
"We done a real small part, but to them it's big because it directly affects Brody because when I was first working on it, he was sitting there and said, 'Fix 'Ho Ho' and I said, 'Yeah, I'm going to try," said Perry Mattan, the man who fixed the decorations.
When a neighboring house had their decorations slashed, Mattan came to the rescue yet again.
"If anything happens again, he'll always come over here and stitch it back up," said Edwards.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Brody and his family during this difficult time, and wish him a very Merry Christmas!
