Some Christmas-inspired Miracle on Main Streets are a little more uplifting than others. To illustrate this, let’s start with a synopsis of 1939’s Miracle on Main Street, which was directed by Steve Sekely and starred Walter Abel along with mono-named Mexican actress Margo.

The film unfolds, according to IMDB as follows: “Maria Porter, a striptease dancer in a carnival side show in the Mexican quarter of Los Angeles, is unhappily married to Dick, a carnival barker with a criminal nature. Attempting to drum up business on Christmas Eve, the pair try to rob an undercover policeman disguised as a lecherous drunk.”

The Vancouver version of Miracle on Main Street, meanwhile, is a little more uplifting.

Spearheaded by Mount Pleasant’s Main St. Brewing, the Miracle on Main St. toy drive is about to return for the second year.

Things start with the premise that it’s always better to give—especially at Christmas—but nonetheless nice to receive. Show up at Main St. Brewing (261 East 7th Avenue) with an unwrapped toy, game, sporting good, or gift card worth $10 or more and your generosity will be rewarded with a flight of the brewery’s four most popular beers: Naked Fox IPA, Fruit Bomb Sour, Kingpin Pale Ale, and Main St. Pilsner.

That deal runs the first 12 days of December. During that time gift-givers will also be entered into a series of even-day prize-package draws, running December 2-24. Winners take home a Main St. Brewing six-pack and a $50 gift card that’s redeemable at participating businesses in the Mount Pleasant Hood. Assuming you’re 19 or older, you’ll also be entered into a grand prize of one flat of Main St. beer per month for the entirety of 2022.

All items collected will go to the Lower Mainland Christmas Bureau for distribution to families in need across the region.

Still in the mood to give, as well as receive?

You can help support the merchants of Mount Pleasant with a line of four holiday gift boxes that range from $40 to $120. In addition to Main St. Brewing offerings (including the new Bière de Coupage in a 500 ml bottle) there are locally produced products from the likes of Señor Nuts, Laid Back Snacks, Fable Diner, Kasama Chocolate, Foglifter Coffee Roasters, and Indigenous World Winery.

Pro-orders are open now at www.mainstreetbeer.ca/holiday-gifts with pickups starting on December 1.

Looking to not only gift that gift box, but accessorize it with an official Miracle on Main Street-themed gift?

Thanks to the internet you should have zero trouble tracking down a DVD of the 1939 movie where, according to IMDB, “Maria joins a crowd entering a church, where she finds an abandoned infant in the Christ child’s manger. As a disguise, she picks up the baby and carries it to her boardinghouse. To avoid the police, Dick leaves Maria to fend for herself and disappears. The deserted Maria is helped by Dr. Miles and her landlady, Mrs. Herman, and soon finds herself unable to part with the infant.”

Or, you know, just watch It’s a Wonderful Life again with a couple of Main St. Brewing beers and a loved one.