Poverty is the Grinch who stole Christmas from two adorable Brooklyn kids.
There is no tree in their barren East New York apartment — and there won’t be any gifts, either, for Dion Stockley, 5, or his sister, Aliyah, 10.
Their parents, Christina Rosario, 29, and Ricky Stockley, 43, are chronically sick and out of work. In fact, the children have never had a proper Christmas.
“Every time Christmas comes, they show me sad faces, and they say, ‘Mommy, how come we can’t get this?’ ” Christina said. “They had nothing. They woke up with nothing.”
Dion wears a wrestling belt fashioned from cardboard. He’d love to get a toy wrestling belt, wrestler figurines and Power Rangers. Aliyah wants a Moxie Girlz Stamp ‘n’ Style doll, an iPod and a laptop. Both want an Xbox 360.
But their parents would be satisfied just to get clothing for them. They had sent a letter to Toys for Tots.
So far, the Brooklyn-based Marine-run charity has collected 90,000 toys but fallen woefully short of its 255,000 goal.
After reading about its plight in The Post, Isaac Larian, CEO of MGA Entertainment, maker of the Lalaloopsy dolls, sent the charity 10,000 toys.
For drop-off sites, go to http://www.toysfortots.org.