Mystery Santa!!

And then there was the year Santa came on Christmas Day…

I just finished a huge Kindness Activist Project.  One in which 142 kids wrote letters to Santa, and Santa bought all of them gifts from their letters (using money raised by Kindness Activist events) and wrote them each a personalized letter.  I will, of course, write the full story and share the accounting of that project soon.  But let’s just say – I have been quite exhausted and catching up on much needed rest on a lazy vacation since the gifts from Santa were picked up… 

And, as you may guess, I am more used to GIVING gifts than RECEIVING them.  Which may be the reason Santa’s Christmas Day visit to our home caught me so by surprise! 

I woke up late on Christmas Day and lazed around our vacation home.  I noticed on my phone that someone had rung our doorbell in Arlington around 10:30 am, so I checked the video clips to see if it was a friend.  In watching the clip, I couldn’t quite make out who the man was.  But I saw that he was leaving a LOT of items in a bin on our porch marked for Little Yellow Free Pantry donations.  Usually neighbors leave cans of tuna, soup, shampoo, and other items to be put into a free pantry at our home.  Now, I couldn’t quite SEE what the man on Christmas Day was leaving, but he was dumping bags and bags of items into the donation bin…  And a couple of times he stepped back to take a photo of the bin.

So strange…  It was a Christmas Day mystery!  I forwarded the video clip to friends who are covering the pantry for me right now, and they too were confused…  But they promised to go check out the scene and let me know what the man had donated.

Sure enough, a few hours later my friend and her daughter came over to see what was in the bin.

And…

The bin was FILLED with brand new TOYS!  Still in the package toys!!  Hot Wheels!  Games!  Puzzles!  A special Barbie!! 

It really feels like Santa came to visit!  It’s so exciting!!  I am not sure who the mystery donor was, and how he happened to grace us with this many lovely gifts, but I promise that they will be put to GOOD USE!  So many children will be thrilled to get them!  Perhaps visitors to the Little Free Yellow Pantry, perhaps neighborhood kids who don’t have birthday gifts, or perhaps children who write letters to Santa next year.

THANK YOU, mystery Santa.  Thanks for keeping the spirit of Christmas alive.  Many children will have big smiles (as do I!) because of you.

Christmas Shopping Kindness

You would think it would be EASY to give away kindness, wouldn’t you? 

But things aren’t always as easy as they should be…

Take tonight for example.!  My partner David and I were out running some errands, errands that included shopping.  It is December 23^rd, just 2 days before Christmas.  I knew that there would be some stressed-out, last-minute shoppers out there, and I decided I would treat them!  Here was the plan:

Find shoppers who were looking for gifts for OTHER PEOPLE, 
and treat them to a gift for THEMSELVES!  Easy, right??

 Only, I set a few rules that I had to follow…  The rules were:

1.  The shopper needed to be alone

2.  The shopper must have things in their cart/hands that looked like they were holiday shopping

3.  The shopper needed to be female (not to be sexist, but I decided I would feel more comfortable approaching a women with this offer, and also felt like women would be more accepting of it)

4.  The shopper must choose something for THEMSELVES, not for someone else

5.  The budget was $50

6.  The shopper must be wearing a mask, and wearing it properly

Rule number 6 proved to be the trickiest!  We are in Florida for the holidays, and Florida seems to be “the land where people think science is make-believe”, so many people choose not to wear masks.  And if they DO wear them, they are often down around their chin…  So yeah, rule number 6 made it hard to find potential shoppers to treat.

We tried this kindness experiment first in Bed, Bath, and Beyond.  I strolled the aisles for so long looking for someone who fit the bill to treat!  Why, I am sure I walked more in that store than most B, B, and B associates do in a day!  😊  I finally decided on a woman I had passed a few times.  She fit all of the criteria! 

As I approached, I asked if she was doing her Christmas shopping.  She confirmed that yes, that’s why she was in the store.  I then explained that I run a project called Kindness Activist, and I wanted to treat her to a Christmas gift of her choice.  Her budget was $50, and she could get whatever she wanted in the store, but it had to be for HER, not for someone else.

She was, understandably, a little startled.  She asked for the explanation again and I gave it to her.  She stammered about getting something for someone else, and I repeated that it must be for her, and that she deserved a holiday treat! 

Like most women, she seemed to be the type who thought of others before herself (again, an overgeneralization, but one I believe to be true).  The idea of splurging on herself so close to a holiday really threw her for a loop!  I suggested some things – a pillow, a blanket, kitchen ware…  But she was too surprised to think!  I told her I would look around the store a bit, then find her again and see if she had chosen anything.

So, I strolled a while, then came back to her.  She hadn’t chosen anything yet.  I explained that we needed to check out, and clarified, “Do YOU want anything??”.  She smiled from under her mask and stammered, “Yes!  Yes, I do!  I just don’t know what…”.  She was so sweet.  I showed her a really soft pillow with arms I had seen.  It was Ugg brand and very nice, and at $49.99 right at budget.  She looked it over and said YES, yes, this was the treat for her.  It was something a bit extravagant that she was probably not likely to splurge on, and it matched her décor, too.

The winning item - nice and soft!

That sealed the deal!  We checked out, stapled the gift receipt to her pillow, and put it in her cart so she could finish her shopping.  She was a sweet woman and very appreciative.

We tried the experiment again at WalMart but were not as lucky.  Very, very few people met the mask requirement, and one who did was on a never-ending phone call (and another that I asked said she was not Christmas shopping).

Which leads us to the here and now.  If a stranger approached YOU 2 days before Christmas and gave you a $50 budget to buy a treat for yourself, would you be open enough to accept it?  If so, what would your treat be?

Kindness funds spent - $53.24