Will Smith urges kindness at the holidays and all year round

NEW YORK — Will Smith’s new film, “Collateral Beauty,” includes a theme about friends aiding a troubled colleague with an act of kindness. It opens Dec. 16, during a time of year when the actor considers it especially important to show compassion for one another.

Of course, a great way to share personal kindness is to participate in the Sun-Times’ annual “Letters to Santa” program. As it has for many years, an outreach goes to social service agencies, homeless shelters, Head Start programs and schools in poverty-afflicted neighborhoods — in order to identify children who will not be able to celebrate the holidays as more affluent kids will be able to do.

As a “Santa’s Helper,” each individual who participates will be sent a letter from a needy child — along with a cover letter from the child’s school or non-profit agency describing the particular child’s situation. It also is hoped that people will get their own companies to sponsor a school.

After reading the cover letter to learn the gift deadline and location, a Santa’s Helper is expected to purchase one of the gifts requested by the child in his or her letter. Please keep the gifts in the $25 to $30 price range, so all children will be treated equally. If it’s impossible to find a specific gift requested, please find a similar item.

Also, it is nice when the Santa’s Helpers include a note from Santa — or merely explainining you’re Santa’s Helper — to be included with the gift, which should be wrapped and sent or delivered directly to the school or agency, not to the Sun-Times. We’re hoping to break the numbers from last year, when we provided gifts to 10,178 children from 52 schools or agencies and received $44,716.95 in donations. For all details on the program go to suntimes.com/santa.

As Will Smith sees it, “being kind” is something that should not be simply limited to the holidays, but he understands the impetus for good works in December — “and it especially is important to reach out to children, particularly those who live in poverty,” said the actor.

“For me it’s always been a very simple idea, not always easy. But be nice. It’s really not more complicated than that. Think about what you say and do. For example, think, ‘Is that a nice thing to say? Was that a nice thing to do?’

“For me it’s not been any more complicated than that. Look, I’m human. I get angry just like everyone else. I have conflicts with people’s points of view — again, just like everyone else. I simply make a point to focus on being nice as much as I can.

“This time of year, we do zero in on special programs and ways of giving back or helping those less fortunate. I think your Letters to Santa program idea is great. But it’s also important to remember that those kids you’re helping with a toy or gift for Christmastime likely need help the rest of the year as well. We all need to keep that in mind and perform acts of kindness year round.”

The act of kindness exhibited in “Collateral Beauty” is dreamed up by partners at the advertising agency of Smith’s character, Howard. He has been unable to overcome his understandable deep grief following the cancer death of his young daughter. Those colleagues — portrayed by Kate Winslet, Michael Pena and Edward Norton — discover Howard has written letters to “Love,” “Time” and “Death.” They decide to help Howard snap out of his grief-stricken state of psychological inertia (which is sending their ad agency down the tubes) by hiring a trio of actors to play “Love,” “Time” and “Death.” Those roles are played respectively by Keira Knightley, Jacob Latimore and Helen Mirren.