It still is the season to be jolly and the Googlers everywhere decided to act on it and give something back to the communities they are a part of. Christmas was the first of the official holidays and as such it was the first to be greeted by the engineers with the will and desire to help others, be it that they helped kids craft public service announcements, contributing to toy drives, gathering donations for food banks, working with high schoolers on their college apps, writing get-well cards for sick children or pitting teams of chefs against one another for charity, as David Griswold of the Google Blog Team reports.

It's not an uncommon way for Google to turn to the people who are most in need and the holiday season seemed like the opportunity to do just so. When else are they going to find the time and the momentum necessary for it if not now, when there is (or at least should be) holiday spirit and good cheer all around?

The pictures in a slide show posted on the official Google blog show some of the Googlers that were involved with the activities and just how helping others can be both fun and rewarding in the spiritual way. Of course, they're hosted on Picasa, after all it's Google we're talking about, but other than that everything is just fine and you can feel the amounts of work and heart that have been poured into the activities.

David ends his blog by encouraging everybody to find a way to give back to their community because, at this time of reveling in stories with your loved ones around a fire that slowly pops and fizzles, there are others in dire need of things that we are just accustomed to being there. Christmas is, after all, a time of sharing, so start sharing, if not anything of value, at least your time.