Once In A Great While, Working Christmas Is Worth It

I came in for a quick three-hour shift for the dinner rush on Christmas Eve. Things were pretty slow but we had several timed orders for 4:00, 4:15, 4:30, 5:00, etc.

I took a couple of normal deliveries, and people were being a little generous, having a good time.

I grabbed a normal bag, a 4:15 timed order that was several large pies with a $91 cash pay, and a 4:30 timed order that was another cash order of two full sheets, and I rushed out the door on my trip.

The ticket didn’t say the 4:15 order was at a church; I only noticed that when I put the address into my GPS.

I got there on time, and they asked me to wait as they were finishing singing a song. The place had a full congregation and a live band with a singer… and I thought I was just waiting for whoever had the cash to pay to come out after the song was over. And, I gotta admit, I was getting a little ticked I was made to wait when it would make the next delivery a few minutes late.

But they asked me to go inside and take the bag up to the stage! As I was unloading, the preacher started thanking me and all food service personnel for working on Christmas Eve in front of the entire congregation. This felt all very strange, to say the least, because here I was in the spotlight in front of everyone.

But he asked if he could say a quick sermon. He said that the spirit of Christmas was about giving, announced they were giving me a $500 tip, and handed over an envelope!

Totally shocked and embarrassed, I managed to say thank you and that I appreciated it, hopefully, loud enough that most could hear, and with my head swimming, I followed a lady to the door.

I completed my other delivery and got back to the shop still dumbfounded. I asked the manager how many people were employed there, and he said twelve. I told him what had happened and asked that he split the $500 with everyone.

At close, they wanted me to take $100 of the $500, and we all were still super surprised about what had happened.

Merry Christmas, indeed.