race Riggs and her husband Ruel know what it's like to bring a grandmother who is helping raise three or four little kids on a few hundred bucks a month into a curtained-off area at the Beaumont Civic Center to pick out toys for children who otherwise would not have a Christmas. Eligibility for this year's recipients, which includes 611 girls and 615 boys - 1,226 children in all - was determined in interviews in early November, said Harold Williams, Christmas Bureau president. The parent or guardian will be able to select one new toy for each child, one gently used toy for each, a new book, a used book and a stuffed animal. The gap-toothed, droopy-pajama kid whose sadness turns all smiles as donations fill his bag has illustrated each year's drive since then. Since 1972, the earliest date from which records are available, the Empty Stocking Fund has raised almost $2 million.