Holiday MAdNesS

The holidays can work two ways with people…they are delighted that it is holiday time and loving all the scurrying around preparing for festivities OR they are annoyed at all the happy people and shoppers, the extra traffic, long lines and in general the disruption in their usual schedules. If you are lucky you see very few of the Scrooge like creatures because they sincerely do not like being around the rest of us.

Yesterday I had to return a dress I had purchased for my youngest daughter. In spite of my decree that I would no longer shop without her I found myself holding a beautiful holiday dress as I was shopping on Black Friday and thought I should grab the frock and bring it home to her. The good news…she loved the dress (YAY) the bad news…it was too big (AGH!!). Now I was faced with returning the dress to the store, which I was not looking forward to.

I decided to make my return midmorning yesterday hoping to miss much of the frenzied shoppers. My plan was to get in and get out of the store (I hear you laughing, but a girl has to have hope!) but it was the best laid plans scenario and in and out was just not happening. It was my own fault; I was distracted by all the pretty lipsticks and the new perfume fragrances out for the holiday. ANYWAY…after my detour at the cosmetics counter I headed over to the Juniors Dept. to return my daughter’s dress. That’s when I met Scroogatha. She came ambling up behind the counter and basically acted like she wanted to help, sucked me in to smiling at her and then BAM. She began by not really acknowledging me other than taking the dress and scanning it. Then she started a conversation with the other clerk about having to get away from the other counter because she could not take their “chattiness”. When I made an attempt at chipping away at the iceberg and said something silly I was met with stony silence. I mean really you cannot throw me a bone? Not even a pretend smile? WHATEVER, I have people that like me you know!

Anyway…I left the counter and stupidly headed out through the Juniors Dept. and stumbled into another possible dress option. OK I am lying I went searching, but in fairness I had a great coupon burning a hole in my pocket! This time I was not going back to Scroogatha’s counter, (I had had enough of her) so I headed toward a short line where everyone was smiling, even the clerks. Just as I approached the counter here came Scroogatha who looked at one of the clerks and said “You have to go to the other counter so that ___?___ can take her break”. The whole time I am thinking “This cannot be happening! Didn’t I just move over here to get away from you?” That’s when it hit me, I had to continue to be nice, God had a plan.

I know it sounds crazy, but I just felt like this was my chance to show her kindness and turn her heart even if it was just for minute. It was not going to be easy since the dress did not have a price tag and she would have to look it up, but I had no choice, I could not tell the woman I was trying to get away from her! So I handed her the dress and remained calm, smiling and thanking her. Her demeanor started to change a little and my defenses started to relax. Next to me another customer was wondering about getting a coupon and she was told there were none to give out, so I offered her one of mine. Somehow this one last moment brought Scroogatha’s final chip off her shoulder and she sent me on my way as pleasant as she could be. It was amazing!

I’m not going to take credit for changing this lady’s life or anything, but I learned that sometimes fate puts us in the path of a challenge and we have to make our way through it or it comes back, sometimes sooner than we want. Perhaps, Scroogatha went on to have a pleasant happy day and her heart turned and she skipped out of work looking forward to heading home to work on holiday preparations. Then again maybe this was a momentary drop of her crusty grouchy exterior. Whatever it was I was able to see two sides of the same person and it made me think that perhaps some people handle holiday madness differently than I do. I become energized and excited at finding the perfect gift and entertaining. My guess is that Scroogatha looks forward to not chatting and having some time alone.

Whatever gets your holiday boat floating, I hope that you enjoy yourself. I also hope that you have the opportunity to touch someone with kindness. We will all need a little morale boost here and there in the next few weeks, so if we work together maybe we can get the happy people and the Scrooge like creatures into the New Year without too much holiday madness.