“It is not about what you have under the tree, it’s about the people around it.”

That is not a quote taken from a Dickens story, but came from the mouth of 10-year-old Peyton Kibler from Bagley. Showing a wiseness and empathy well beyond her years, for much of young life Peyton has helped others, from those very close to her, to strangers she and her family come across.

It was just a short time ago that Peyton’s mother, Cari Abb, asked her and her siblings to start making letters to Santa.

Instead of asking for anything for herself, Peyton instead wanted to make sure relatives who just lost their mother got anything that would come to her.

“They lost one of the most important people from around the tree,” Peyton said, referring to her oldest sister, Ashley, who passed away in October suddenly, just days after she had given birth to her youngest child.

“Since I know you can’t bring my sister back, the only thing I would like is that you could send some extra Christmas presents to my nieces and nephews,” Peyton wrote in her letter to Santa.

“If you think I need to have something for Christmas, then the only thing I wish for myself is that my family and I could spend Christmas with them,” she also wrote to Santa.

“I know you can make this happen because last year I wished for my best friend wouldn’t be sick anymore,” Peyton continued in her letter to Santa, referring to her best friend, Oaklynn Peterson, who last year was dealing with Stage 4 Kidney Cancer.

When they learned of Oaklynn’s diagnosis last fall, Peyton jumped into action, hosting bake sales wherever she could, in order to raise $2,360 for Oaklynn and her family during their fight. She held a bake sale at Christmas in Bagley, sold baked goods at school.

For Peyton, when it comes to a problem, she tends not to wallow, but look to how she can make things better for others. “I don’t try to dwell, I try to look at the positive, what can I do to help,” she said, looking back at last year.

Even if it means making things she doesn’t like, like the spice packs she sold during the bake sales. “I don’t like the spices,” Peyton joked.

But she loves baking, and has since she was in kindergarten, where for dress-up, she grabbed a mixing bowl and apron. She sees a career in baking where she does good deeds while also making tasty treats. “Every Christmas I am going to give out free Christmas fudge,”

Peyton dreams of doing. “I am going to go up, reach out my hand, and ask ‘do you want some fudge?”

She has held bake sales for things like River and Bluffs Animal Shelter, and to raise money to pay for hot lunch at school.

For her parents, none of this is surprising, as she is constantly trying to help others, even people she does not know.

“She just notices all these other kids around us,” her father, Mike, shares, noting that Peyton will want to make sure a kid nearby has candy before she could enjoy anything.

When they went on vacation, they saw street performers and Peyton wanted to make sure they gave them money. If they are in a larger city where there are homeless looking for something, she makes her family go to a store, get them some food, and go back to give them the food.

“Ever since she was little she would go through her toys and be like ‘we are not playing with these, let’s give this to some other girl,” Cari shared.

Mike added that Peyton has cleaned out her toy chest numerous times, making sure they are given to others in need.

“If I am there, I cannot enjoy it if they aren’t,” Peyton said of why she wants to help others.

She said she was inspired at an early age by her family.

“All I saw were two inspirations that came together to inspire me,” Peyton said, going over different stories about her family inspiring her. There were small things, like her parents simply saying please and thank you to wait staff at a restaurant. There were larger items, like making wreaths and decorations for friends of the family who had lost loved ones during the previous year.

Her older brother Taran put quarters in all the carts at Aldi.

Getting involved in items like Operation Santa Claus, and other projects inspired Peyton to do so as well.

“I think what you say around kids shows them how to interact with other people,” noted Mike.

“She is definitely way more mature for her age,” said Cari. “I cannot imagine what she will be able to do when she is older,” recalling that when she was four, she asked to cut off her hair to donate it for wigs for children. She cut her hair short again last year, in solidarity for Oakllynn.

When a fellow classmate was being picked on, Peyton took charge to make sure it didn’t continue at school.

For now, she is focused on helping out her nieces and nephews. They live several hours away, but she wants to help. Before Ashley’s funeral, they had held another bake sale for her fiancé, Brandon, selling out what they could make in such a short period of time.

Her mother, posting the letter on social media, got such a response that several businesses in the area are now hosting a toy drive for Peyton’s nieces and nephews, with the ages and interests listed.

In addition to helping Brandon and her relatives, Peyton wants to help others as well. She hopes to one day go to a nursing home and present each resident with a bouquet of flowers. She will likely go around her neighborhood delivering notes of well wishes to her neighbors. She will work on projects for the school’s Sources of Strength program to help out her fellow students.

“That’s what the holiday is all about - kindness,” Peyton said of what Christmas means to her. “It means to give kindness, because kindness is contagious.”